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DAYS   NEAR   ROME, 


By  AUGUSTUS  J.  C.  HARE, 

AUTHOR  OF  "WALKS  IN   ROME,"    "MEMORIALS  OF  A  QUIET  LIFE,   ETC. 


[ttt)  JIIIustrationH. 


TWO     VOLUMES. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PORTER    $c    COATES, 
822  Chestnut  Street. 

1875. 


'--'inhxn  ■"■ 


'.  :**/  »*»•  ^ '- 


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n 


GIFT  OP 


•  •  •  •  •«  .;  • 


PREFACE. 


T  N  submitting  these  volumes  to  the  public,  I  would 
earnestly  apologize  to  my  readers  for  their  imper- 
fections. The  ground,  in  many  instances,  had  been 
almost  untrodden  ;  several  of  the  places  described  are 
difficult  of  access,  and  have  never  before  been  visited 
by  foreigners ;  and,  in  most  cases,  published  descrip- 
tions either  do  not  exist  at  all  already,  or  are  so 
inaccurate  and  untrustworthy  as  to  be  only  mis- 
guiding. A  great  field  for  discovery  still  remains, 
even  within  a  day's  journey  of  Rome ;  and  if,  in 
opening  the  way  to  others,  I  lead  them  to  enjoy  half 
the  pleasure  I  have  received  from  my  own  researches, 
I  shall  be  more  than  rewarded. 

Some  of  the  chapters  of  this  book  have  already 
appeared,  in  a  condensed  form,  as  Magazine  Articles 
in  "  Good  Words." 

The   illustrations   of   buildings   and    scenery   are 

M164335 


vi  PREFACE. 

from  my  own  sketches,  taken  on  the  spot ;  the  figures 
I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  friends  ;  for  their  transfer- 
ence to  wood  I  am  indebted  to  the  skill  of  Mr.  T. 
Sulman.  The  subjects  chosen  are  purposely  selected 
where  verbal  descriptions  may  fail  to  delineate  the 
character  of  the  places  visited. 

Augustus  J.  C.  Hare. 

Holmhurst,  Sept.,  1874. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 
INTRODUCTION 9 

CHAPTER  I. 

OSTIA  AND   CASTEL  FUSANO 39 

CHAPTER  n. 

ALBANO   AND    LARICCIA 50 

CHAPTER  in. 

MONTE  CAVO,  NEMI,  AND   CIVITA   LAVINIA  .  .  .  .         8l 

CHAPTER  IV. 

FRASCATI,  TUSCULUM,  AND   COLONNA 97 

CHAPTER  V. 

GROTTA   FERRATA   AND   MARINO I23 

CHAPTER  VI. 

VEII 131 

CHAPTER  VII. 

GALERA   AND   BRACCIANO   .  .  .  .  .'  .  .  .143 

CHAPTER  Vin. 

GABII   AND   ZAGAROI.O  .  .  1 54 


PAGE 
162 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CERVARA,    LUNGHEZZA,    AND  COLLATIA  .  . 

CHAPTER  X. 

ANTEMNiE   AND    FIDEN^ 167 

CHAPTER  XI. 

MENTANA   AND    MONTE   ROTONDO       177 

CHAPTER  XII. 

TIVOLI 1^4 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

LICENZA   AND    MONTE   GENNARO  .,..,.      207 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

VELLETRI 220 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  VOLSCIAN  HILLS— CORI,  NORMA,  NINFA,  AND  SEGNI    .  .      226 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  HERNICAN   HILLS — FERENTINO,    ALATRI,    AND   ANAGNI       .      248 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

PALESTRINA 268 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

GENAZZANO,  PALIANO,  AND  OLEVANO 282 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
&UBIACO 294 


INTRODUCTORY. 


ONLY  about  one  traveller  in  five  hundred  of  those  who 
cross  the  Alps  ever  sees  Italy.  Those  who  go  to  Milan, 
Venice,  Florence,  Rome,  and  Naples,  and  who  stay  at  the 
hotels  of  New  York,  Washington,  Brighton,  Paris,  or 
Londres,  dining  daily  on  a  well-cooked  English  or  French 
dinner,  at  hot  tables  d'hote  amid  a  vociferous  throng  of 
their  own  countrymen,  attended  by  obsequious  waiters  who 
talk  bad  English ;  visiting  hackneyed  sights,  led  in  tow  by 
haughty  couriers  or  ignorant  ciceroni;  driving  out  to  meets 
in  the  Campagna,  making  parties  for  illuminations  in  the 
Coliseum,  or  devouring  chickens  and  champagne  on  the 
slopes  at  Veii : — these  do  not  see  Italy.  They  lead  a 
pleasant  life  and  pass  very  agreeable  days ;  but  the  life  they 
are  leading  is  not  Italian,  the  land  which  they  allow  to  be 
doled  out  for  them,  or  dole  out  for  themselves,  is  not  Italy : 
and  as  regards  the  real,  true,  un-Anglicized,  un-Americanized 
country,  they  might  just  as  well,  on  their  return  home,  have 
been  attending  an  admirable  series  of  panoramas  and 
dioramas  in  Leicester  Square. 

In  order,  however,  to  enjoy  the  Eden  of  sights  which 
couriers  guard  with  their  two-edged  swords,  a  very  different 


lo  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

line  of  conduct,  a  very  different  phase  of  character,  must 
be  assumed  by  our  countrymen,  to  those  which  they  usually 
indulge  in.  It  is  no  use  to  look  for  French  cookery  in  the 
Abruzzi,  or  to  hope  to  find  tea  and  toast  amid  the  sepul- 
chral cities  of  Etruria,  neither  need  any  one  expect  to  be 
treated  with  great  deference,  to  be  placed  on  a  mental 
pedestal  and  regarded  as  a  superior  being,  in  these  uncon- 
ventional places.  Travellers  will  certainly  meet  with 
nothing  of  the  kind.  They  will  learn  that  the  only  way  to 
have  what  you  like,  is  to  like  what  you  have ;  they  will  find 
that  they  are  treated  with  just  as  much  courtesy  and  defer- 
ence as  they  are  willing  to  bes'tow  ;  that  if  they  regard  the 
natives  as  their  equals,  are  genial,  frank,  modest,  and  unsus- 
picious, they  will  receive  a  boundless  amount  of  small 
kindnesses  in  return,  and  that  if  they  are  only  open-hearted, 
their  being  open-handed  is  a  matter  of  comparative  indif- 
ference. There  is  no  greater  mistake  than  that  of  suppos- 
ing the  Italian  character  to  be  extortionate  and  avaricious ; 
except  in  the  old  kingdom  of  Naples,  it  is  neither.  In  the 
beaten  track,  couriers  have  raised  the  prices,  or  travellers 
have  done  it  for  themselves,  to  an  English  and  American 
standard,  and  the  constant  habit  of  bargaining  recommended 
in  guide-books,  has  led  to  extortionate  demands,  and  thus 
become  a  necessity ;  but  in  Italian  inns,  any  overcharge  is 
exceedingly  unusual,  and  is  only  suggested  by  suspicion. 
The  more  distant  the  place  and  the  more  difficult  of  attain- 
ment, the  greater  is  usually  the  attention  shown  to  strangers, 
and  the  warmer  a  disinterested  welcome.  Their  wants 
are  sometimes  little  understood,  often  a  cause  of  great 
surprise  and  amusement,  but  every  effort  is  made  to  supply 
them,  and  little  is  expected  from  those  whom  some  misfor- 


INTRODUCTORY.  ir 

tune  alone,  it  is  supposed,  can  have  driven  from  the  delights 
of  the  capital  into  such  desolate  places.  But  if  travellers 
give  themselves  airs,  if  they  are  too  exacting  in  their 
demands,  heedless  of  passing  salutations,  especially  of  the 
Abruzzi  peasant,  who  always  meets  you  with,  "  May  God 
accompany  you — may  your  return  be  happy :  "  above  all,  if 
they  always  act  in  the  inns  as  if  they  were  being  cheated, 
and  chatter  in  the  churches  during  mass  as  if  they  were  at  a 
London  party,  they  must  expect  to  be  laughed  at,  despised, 
insulted,  and  occasionally  robbed.  "  Non  sono  Cristiani, 
come  noi  altri,"  is  the  national  comment  upon  strangers 
who  do  not  know  how  to  behave  themselves,  and  they  are 
sure  to  be  treated  with  contempt  for  they  deserve  nothing 
better. 

It  is  strange  how  wonderfully  litde  the  country  around 
Rome  has  been  investigated,  even  by  those  who  are  not 
usually  daunted  by  little  difficulties  and  discomforts.  Such 
attention  as  has  not  been  expended  upon  the  interest  of  the 
capital,  has  been  almost  entirely  devoted  to  the  *'Cam- 
pagna  "  in  its  narrowest  sense  of  the  plain  girdled  in  by  the 
hills  which  may  be  seen  from  the  walls  of  Eome,  but  into, 
and  beyond  those  hills,  travellers  scarcely  ever  penetrate, 
and  they  generally  have  not  an  idea  of  the  glories  which  lie 
concealed  there.  It  is,  therefore,  as  an  invitation  and  a 
companion  into  these  unKnown  regions  that  these  volumes 
are  intended. 

"  The  country  which  is  described  by  the  name  of  the  Roman  Cam- 
pagna,  has  a  narrower  or  a  wider  circumference,  in  proportion  as  one 
regards  its  geographical  limits.  Taken  in  the  narrower  sense,  the 
Campagna  is  that  grand  and  desolate  district,  which  spreads  around  the 
walls  of  Rome,  and  is  enclosed  by  the  Tiber  and  the  Anio.  Its  cir- 
cumference might  be  marked  hi?  a  series  of  well-known  points  :  Civita 


12  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

Vecchia,  Tolfa,  Ronciglione,  Soracte,  Tivoli,  Palestrina,  Albano,  and 
Ostia.  But  in  its  wider  sense  the  Campagna  extends  almost  to  the 
former  kingdom  of  Naples  and  its  boundary  is  the  Liris  or  Garigliano. 

"The  Campagna  of  Rome  is  nothing  else  than  the  land  of  Latium, 
which  is  separated  from  Tuscany  by  the  Tiber.  From  the  time  of 
Constantine  the  Great  the  name  of  Latium  has  fallen  into  disuse,  and 
<^hat  of  Campania  has  been  used  in  its  place,  and  in  the  middle  ages 
this  name  indicated  a  great  part  of  the  so-called  '  Ducatus  Romanus.' 

"  Since  the  middle  ages  this  district  has  been  divided  into  two  parts, 
the  Campagna,  which  comprises  the  inland  district,  and  the  Maritima, 
which  extends  along  the  sea-coast  as  far  as  Terracina.  Nature  herself 
has  separated  it  by  mountains  and  plains  into  distinct  compartments. 
It  is  divided  into  three  plains  ;  first,  the  Campagna  around  the  city, 
watered  by  the  Tiber  and  the  Anio,  and  hemmed  in  by  the  Alban  and 
Sabine  mountains,  the  hills  above  Ronciglione,  and  the  sea-coast  : 
secondly,  the  great  plain  in  which  the  Pontine  Marshes  are  situated, 
bounded  on  one  side  by  the  Alban  and  Volscian  Hills  and  on  the  other 
by  the  sea  ;  and  lastly,  the  valley  of  the  Sacco  which  runs  between 
the  Volscian  and  the  Equian  and  Hernican  Hills,  and  falls  into  the  Liris 
near  Isoletta  below  Ceprano." — Gregorovius. 

The  more  distant  excursions  described  in  these  volumes 
are  perhaps  the  most  interesting,  but  cannot  generally  be 
recommended  for  aged  or  delicate  persons.  There  are, 
however,  some  even  of  these  which  may  be  undertaken 
without  the  slightest  inconvenience  or  discomfort,  and  which 
form  a  delightful  change  from  Rome  in  the  Spring.  The 
most  advisable  of  these  easy  tours  is  that  by  the  southern 
railway,  making  the  excursions  (separately)  to  Cori  and 
Ninfa  from  Velletri,  ascending  the  valley  of  the  Liris 
from  Rocca  Secca  to  Sora,  and,  while  there,  visiting  Arpino 
and  its  neighbourhood,  and  staying  at  the  inn  at  S.  Germano 
and  thence  seeing  Aquino.  Subiaco,  Olevano,  and  Palestrina 
may  be  comfortably  visited  from  Rome  in  a  carriage.  Orvieto 
is  now  easily  accessible  by  railway.  The  neighbourhood  of 
the  Pontine  Marshes  always  presents  a  certain  amount  of 
risk  from  fevers.     The  Abruzzi  will  only  delight  those  who 


INTRODUCTORY.  .  13 

can  enjoy  the  savagest  moods  of  nature.  In  the  Ciminian 
Hills,  which,  combined  with  Caprarola,  afford  in  Spring 
perhaps  the  most  delightful  of  the  excursions  from  Rome, 
the  accommodation  is  indifferent,  though  much  may  be  seen 
in  drives  from  Viterbo,  a  central  situation,  where  a  week  may 
be  passed  most  agreeably. 

There  is  no  town  in  the  world  whence  such  a  variety  of 
excursions  may  be  made  as  from  Rome.  They  are  so 
entirely  different  from  one  another.  The  phase  of  the 
scenery,  the  architecture  of  the  towns,  the  costume,  the 
habits,  the  songs  (and  this  means  so  much  to  Italian 
peasants),  even  the  language,  is  changed,  according  to  the 
direction  you  take  on  leaving  the  capital.  And  whether 
tourists  confine  themselves  to  the  inner  circle  of  sights 
usually  known  to  strangers  and  roughly  indicated  in  "  Murray's 
Handbook,"  which  is  hemmed  in  by  the  hills  which  encircle 
the  Campagna ;  or  whether  they  are  induced  to  penetrate 
into  the  glorious  heights  of  the  Volscian  and  Hemican 
Mountains,  the  deep  recesses  of  the  Sabina,  or  amid  the  lost 
cities  of  Etruria,  they  will  find  that  the  small  disagreeables 
and  the  occasional  difficulties,  which  must  frequently  be 
endured  at  the  time,  weigh  as  nothing  in  the  balance  against 
the  store  of  beautiful  mental  pictures,  of  instructive  recol- 
lections of  people  and  character,  and  of  heart-stirring 
associations,  which  will  be  laid  up  for  the  rest  of  life.  And 
they  will  come  to  feel  that  it  is  just  because  there  were  not 
good  roads,  not  easy  carriages,  not  comfortable  inns,  that  it 
was  all  so  interesting,  because  thus,  not  only  the  places 
themselves  remained  the  same,  but  the  simple  poetical 
character  of  the  people  was  unspoilt. 

The  comparative  stagnation  of  life  under  the  Papal  govern- 


14  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

ment  did  even  more  to  preserve  the  mediaeval  character  of 
the  distant  towns  in  the  Papal  States;^  than  of  Rome  itself. 
And  in  Rome  now  the  ancient  characteristics  have  entirely 
perished,  having  been  swept  away  in  three  years  in  a  man- 
ner which  sounds  incredible,  and  which  would  have  seemed 
impossible  beforehand.  And,  while  acknowledging  certain 
beneficial  changes  introduced  by  the  present  Government,  it 
is  not  only  the  artist  who  will  recognize  that  much  of  the 
interest,  and  as  much  as  possible  of  the  beauty,  of  the 
"  Eternal  City  "  has  been  destroyed.  Not  only  has  all  trace 
of  costume  perished,  together  with  the  mediaeval  figures  and 
splendid  dresses  which  belonged  to  the  Papal  Court,  and 
walked  in  the  footsteps  of  crimson  cardinals;  but  all  the 
gorgeous  religious  ceremonies,  all  the  processions,  and 
benedictions,  and  sermons  preached  by  the  shrines  of 
martyrs,  have  ceased  to  exist.  Even  the  time-honoured 
Pifferari  have  been  chased  from  Rome  by  the  present 
Government  as  a  public  nuisance.  The  closing  of  so  many 
convents  and  the  robbery  of  the  dowries  of  so  many  nuns 
(given  on  their  entrance  in  the  same  sense  in  which  a 
marriage  portion  is  given),  has  not  only  been  an  act  of 
crying  injustice  in  itself,  which  even  the  strongest  Protestant 
must  feel,  but  while  it  has  flooded  the  streets  with  starving, 
helpless,  or  infirm  persons,  who  subsisted  on  the  daily  con- 
vent dole  of  coarse  bread  and  soup,  it  has  thrown  thousands 
of  helpless  ladies,  who  believed  themselves  provided  for 
during  their  lives  (and  by  their  own  families),  into  a  state  of 
utter  destitution,  for  the  relief  of  which  the  miserable  and 
irregularly  paid  pension  of  a  few  pence  a  day  appointed  by 
the  Government  sounds  merely  like  a  mockery.  Many 
famous  antiquarian  memorials  have  disappeared,  together 


INTRODUCTORY.  i'5 

with  other  well-known  buildings,  of  which  the  interest  was 
confined  to  Papal  times.  The  Agger  of  Servius  Tullius  and 
the  ruined  Ponte  Salara  have  been  swept  away.  The  in- 
comparable view  from  the  Ponte  Rotto  has  been  blocked 
out,  the  trees  on  the  Aventine  and  the  woods  of  Monte 
Mario  have  been  cut  down.  The  Villa  Negroni-Massimo, 
the  most  beautiful  of  Roman  gardens,  with  the  grandest  of 
old  orange  avenues,  and  glorious  groves  of  cypresses  amid 
which  Horace  was  buried, — a  villa  whose  terraces  dated 
from  the  time  when  it  belonged  to  Maecenas,  and  which  was 
replete  with  recollections  of  the  romantic  story  of  Vittoria 
Accorambuoni,  of  Donna  Camilla  Perretti,  and  of  Alfieri, 
has  been  ruthlessly  and  utterly  ploughed  up,  so  that  not  a 
trace  of  it  is  left.  Even  this,  however,  is  as  nothing  com- 
pared with  the  entire  destruction  of  the  beauty  and  charm 
of  the  grandest  of  the  buildings  which  remain.  The  Baths 
of  Caracalla,  stripped  of  all  their  verdure  and  shrubs,  and 
deprived  alike  of  the  tufted  foliage  amid  which  Shelley  wrote, 
and  of  the  flowery  carpet  which  so  greatly  enhanced  their 
lonely  solemnity,  are  now  a  series  of  bare  featureless  walls 
standing  in  a  gravelly  waste,  and  possess  no  more  attraction 
than  the  ruins  of  a  London  warehouse.  The  Coliseum,  no 
longer  "  a  garlanded  ring,"  is  bereaved  of  everything  which 
made  it  so  lovely  and  so  picturesque,  while  botanists  must 
for  ever  deplore  the  incomparable  and  strangely  unique 
"  Flora  of  the  Coliseum,"  which  Signor  Rosa  has  caused  to 
be  carefully  annihilated,  even  the  roots  of  the  shrubs  having 
been  extracted  by  the  firemen,  though,  in  pulling  them  out, 
more  of  the  building  has  come  down  than  five  hundred 
years  of  time  would  have  injured.  In  the  Basilica 
Constantine,  the  whole  of  the  beautiful  covering  of  shrub 


16  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

with  which  Nature  had  protected  the  vast  arches,  has  been 
removed,  and  the  rain,  soaking  into  the  unprotected 
upper  surface,  will  soon  bring  them  down.  Nor  has  the 
work  of  the  destroyer  been  confined  to  the  Pagan  antiquities ; 
the  early  Christian  porches  of  S.  Prassede  and  S.  I^udenziana, 
with  their  valuable  terra-cotta  ornaments,  have  been  so 
smeared  with  paint  and  yellow-wash  as  to  be  irrecognisable  ; 
many  smaller  but  precious  Christian  antiquities,  such  as  the 
lion  of  the  Santi  Apostoli,  have  disappeared  altogether.  And 
in  return  for  these  destructions  and  abductions,  Rome  has 
been  given  .  .  what  ?  Quantities  of  hideous  false  rock-work 
painted  brown  in  all  the  public  gardens  ;  a  Swiss  cottage  and 
a  clock  which  goes  by  water  forced  in  amid  the  statues  and 
sarcophagi  of  the  Pincio ;  and  the  having  the  passages  of  the 
Capitol  painted  all  over  with  the  most  flaring  scarlet  and 
blue,  so  as  utterly  to  destroy  the  repose  and  splendour  of 
its  ancient  statues. 

Should  tb^  present  state  of  things  continue  much  longer, 
and  especially  should  Signor  Rosa  remain  in  power,  the 
whole  beauty  of  Rome  will  have  disappeared,  except  that 
which  the  Princes  guard  in  their  villas,  and  that  which  the 
everlasting  hills  and  the  glowing  Campagna  can  never  fail  to 
display.  It  is  to  the  environs  that  poets  must  turn  for  their 
inspiration  and  artists  for  their  pictures,  and  as  the  de- 
stroying hand  advances,  they  must  wander  further  away,  for 
though  the  Villa  Adriana,  which  was  like  a  historical  Idyll 
of  Nature,  has  already  fallen,  and  the  amphitheatre  of  Sutri 
is  threatened,  Cori  and  Ninfa,  Alatri  and  Anagni,  Aquino, 
Subiaco,  Narni,  Soracte,  and  Caprarola  must  long  remain 
unspoilt. 

On   the   immediate  neighbourhood  of  Rome  much  has 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

already  been  written.     Sir  William  Cell's  "  Topography  of 

Rome  and  its  Vicinity  "  is  a  mine  of  antiquarian  information. 

Some  slight  sketches  of  different  points  of  interest,  especially 

of  the  monasteries  in  the  neighbourhood,  may  be  found  in 

the  different  works  of  Hemans.    The  author  would  especially 

express  his  constant  debt  of  gratitude  to  "  Cramer's  Ancient 

Italy,"  and  to  many  of  the  wonderfully  accurate  articles  in 

"Smith's   Dictionary   of  Creek   and   Roman    Ceography." 

Story's  charming  "  Roba  di  Roma,"  and  several  admirable 

novels,    especially  "  The    Marble  Faun "  (foolishly  called 

"  Transformation "  in  England),  "  Barbara's  History,"  and 

more    especially    Ceorge    Sand's   *'  Daniella,"    abound    in 

charming  word-pictures  of  the  Campagna  and  the  nearer 

places  on  the  hills.     But  for  more  distant  excursions,  the 

English   books    of   reference   are    easily    exhausted,  with 

one  great  exception, — "  Dennis'  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of 

Etruria."     In  studying  this  delightful  work,  and  even  in  the 

few  extracts  given  in  these  volumes,  the  reader  who  knows 

Rome  will  seem  to  feel  again  the  fresh  breeze  from  the 

Sabine  and  Alban  hills  sweeping  over  the  Campagna,  laden 

with  a  scent  of  sweet  basil  and  thyme,  and  he  will  enjoj 

again  in  their  remembrance  that  glow  of  enthusiasm  which 

the  real  scenes  brought  into  them.     The  great  volumes  of 

Dennis  are  too  large  to  be  companions  on  the  excursions 

themselves,  but  in  preparation  for  them  will  be  charming 

fireside  companions  for  Roman  winter  evenings.     German 

scholars  will  delight  in  the  charming  volumes  of  Cregorovius, 

and  especially  in  his  "  Lateinische  Sommer,"  than  which  no 

descriptive  book  is  more  pictorial  or  more  interesting.     The 

best  and  most  accurate  Hand-books  of  Italy  which  have  yet 

been   pubHshed   are  also   in   German — those   of   Dr.  Th. 
VOL.   I.  2 


i8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Gsell-fels,  assisted  by  admirable  maps,  and  though  they  are 
exceedingly  unequal,  as  if  the  author  had  only  visited  in 
person  a  portion  of  the  district  he  describes,  in  some  places 
they  are  almost  exhaustive.  The  small  Hand-books  of 
Baedeker  are  very  convenient  and  practical,  and  are  gener- 
ally very  carefully  corrected. 

It  must  necessarily  be  with  the  present  work  as  with  the 
many  which  have  preceded  it.  Some  who  follow  in  the  paths 
it  indicates  will  think  its  descriptions  exaggerated,  others  will 
find  them  not  sufficiently  glowing.  For  Rome,  more  than 
any  other  place,  produces  different  impressions  on  different 
minds.  The  Campagna  in  its  ruin  and  desolation  will  be 
described  as  "  dismal  and  monotonous,"  or  "  solemn  and 
beautiful,"  according  to  the  feelings  of  those  who  traverse  it. 
Some  \vill  only  be  impressed  with  the  dirt,  the  poverty,  the 
ruinousness  of  the  mountain-towns ;  others  with  their  pic- 
turesqueness  and  colour.  It  is  necessary  to  real  enjoyment 
of  these  mountain  places  to  cast  out  all  the  black  motes 
which  too  often  obscure  our  vision.  When  this  is  done, 
what  a  store  of  sunny  memories  may  be  laid  up. 

"  Yea,  from  the  very  soil  of  silent  Rome 
You  shall  grow  wise  ;  and  walking,  live  again 

The  lives  of  buried  peoples,  and  become 

A  child  by  right  of  that  eternal  home, 
Cradle  and  grave  of  empires,  on  whose  walls 
The  sun  himself  subdued  to  reverence  falls. " — y.  A.  S. 

Rome  is  unlike  other  towns  in  having  scarcely  any 
suburbs  ;  on  nearly  every  side  one  is  in  the  country  almost 
directly. 

'*  St.  John  describes  Rome,  in  the  Apocalypse,  as  sitting  upon  her 
seven  hills  in  the  wilderness.  And  a  wilderness  indeed  it  is.  First,  in 
every  direction  that  leads  into  the  Campagna,  you  pass  the  inhabited 
streets  j    then   comes  a  belt  of  vineyards   and  villas,  fading  off  into 


INTRODUCTORY.  19 

desolation  as  you  proceed ;  then  come  the  grand  old  walls,  stretching 
away,  with  their  richly-coloured  brickwork  and  flanking  towers.  You 
pass  out  through  a  stately  gate,  through  which  legions  have  gone  out  and 
in  fifteen  hundred  years  ago,  and  you  are  in  the  Campagna.  There  it  is 
before  you,  mile  after  mile,  brownish  green  in  the  foreground,  red  in 
the  middle  distance,  melting  away  into  purple  and  blue  in  the  farther 
distance,  and  bounded  by  a  glorious  bank  of  mountains,  of  colours  not 
to  be  attempted  by  pen  or  pencil.  Hardly  a  human  habitation  is  visible, 
save  whei-e,  on  the  Alban  Hills  to  your  right,  the  villages  gleam  out, 
sprinkling  their  gorgeous  sides  with  spots  of  pearl.  Ancient  towers  and 
tombs  are  cast  at  random  about  the  waste.  Flat  it  is  not,  but  full  of 
the  most  picturesque  undulations,  and  even  lines  of  low  cliffs  and  wind- 
ing streams.  Endless  are  its  varieties  of  beauty,  in  outline,  in  grouping, 
and  above  all,  in  colour.  For  miles  and  miles  the  ancient  and  modern 
aqueducts  bridge  it  with  their  countless  arches — haunts  of  all  the  lovely 
hues  of  the  bow  of  heaven.  Watch  them  in  the  yellow  and  orange  of  the 
morning  and  noonday  sun  ;  watch  them  mellowing  off  as  the  westering 
beam  slopes  on  them,  turning  their  gold  to  copper,  then  casting  that 
copper  into  the  glow  of  the  furnace,  then  cooling  it  down  into  the  dull 
iridescence  of  parting  evening ;  watch  them  till  the  green  grey  of  the 
fading  light  has  subdued  them  into  the  sober  mass  of  undistinguished 
plain  and  mountain  ;  then  wrap  your  cloak  double  round  you,  and  stride 
away  through  the  chilled  streets  and  the  thronging  Corso  to  your  steep 
open  staircase,  and  your  snug  log  fire,  and  meditate  on  as  fair  ^kI 
heavenly  a  sight  as  ever  blessed  a  day  on  this  varied  earth. 

"  Rome  itself  is  a  place  of  never-dying  and  ever- varying  interest ;  but 
the  Campagna  of  Rome  is  a  pure  source  of  unfailing  delight." — Dean 
Alford. 

Yet  without  its  varied  mountain  distances,  without  the 
glorious  climate  to  illuminate  it,  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
say  how  ugly  the  Campagna  would  be.  As  it  is  it  is  per- 
fectly beautiful.  For  so  vast  an  expanse  there  are  few 
marked  features  ;  only,  here  and  there,  the  aqueducts,  some- 
times striding  across  the  plain  in  mighty  lines  of  arches 
garlanded  against  the  sky  with  ivy  and  smilax,  sometimes 
merely  marked  by  a  white  line  in  the  grass  or  a  succession 
of  miniature  round  towers  over  their  openings.  Between 
the  aqueducts,  run  the  roads,  often  following  the  course  of 


20  '  DA  yS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  ancient  Roman  highways,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Via 
Tiburtina,  still  paved  with  the  blocks  of  black  lava,  laid  down 
two  thousand  years  ago,  over  which  the  wine-carts  rattle  with 
their  revolving  hoods  {capote),  shelters  alike  against  sun  and 
shower, — ^^often  drawn  by  grand,  meek-eyed  oxen.  Hard  by, 
the  black  crosses,  sprinkled  along  the  dusty  wayside 
amongst  the  thistles,  keep  their  dismal  record  of  accidents 
or  murders;  and  refuges  of  hurdles,  erected  at  intervals, 
attest  the  ferocity  of  the  Campagna  buffaloes  and  the 
necessity  of  escape  from  them. 

In  the  winter  the  plain  is  crimson  and  gold  with  the 
decaying  vegetation ;  but,  as  spring  advances,  it  changes  so 
rapidly  to  green,  that  it  is  as  if  it  were  suddenly  touched 
with  phosphoric  light ;  and,  as  summer  advances,  the  growth 
becomes  coarse  and  rampagious  to  a  degree — Virgins  thistle, 
breast-high  ;  rank  anchusas ;  hemlock ;  huge  resedas  ;  acres 
covered  with  the  tall  and  stately  but  poisonous  asphodel, 
here  and  there  a  low  bush  of  hawthorn,  and  a  band  of  green 
osiers  marking  where  the  Anio  meanders  through  a  cleft. 
Almost  every  building  is  mediaeval,  except  those  which  are 
classical.  The  most  conspicuous  are  the  tall  towers  of  brick 
and  stone,  relics  for  the  most  part  of  Orsini  and  Colonna 
feuds,  and  erected  as  a  refuge  for  the  shepherds  of  one  of  the 
great  proprietors,  against  the  inroads  of  his .  neighbours. 
Besides  these,  there  are  the  huts  built  of  reeds,  such  as 
Virgil  describes,  and  the  rifled  tombs,  now  used  as  houses, 
in  the  doors  of  which  we  so  often  see  the  shepherd-wives, 
with  folded  panni  shading  their  withered  faces,  seated 
spinning  like  the  pictures  of  the  Fates,  while  the  shepherds 
themselves,  dressed  in  goat-skins,  watch  their  flocks  on  the 
neighbouring  turfy  hillocks. 


INTRODUCTORY.  21 

"Next  to  the  picturesquely  conspicuous  towers  the  most  frequent 
landmarks  are  the  conical  shepherds'  huts,  usually  on  the  higher  grounds, 
inhabited  during  about  half  the  year  by  a  race  of  men  so  cut  off  from 
all  social  and  civilizing  influences  that  one  might  expect  to  find  the 
lowest  brutality,  and  all  the  fiercest  passions,  in  a  moral  soil  thus  neg- 
lected. The  shepherd  of  these  parts,  in  his  broad-brimmed  black  hat, 
long  loose  jacket  and  leggings,  both  alike  of  unshorn  sheep  or  goat- 
skin, might  seem  the  original  type  whence  an  idealizing  dream  devised 
the  mythologic  satyr.  His  temporary  dwelling  is  made  of  branches 
of  the  yellow-flowering  Spanish  broom,  and  is  open  at  the  pointed  apex 
for  the  escape  of  smoke  from  the  wood-fire  lit  in  the  middle,  around 
which  are  ranged  beds,  something  like  berths  in  a  ship,  and  usually  for 
several  people,  as  this  hut  is  inhabited  by  many  inmates,  besides  dogs 
or  pigs,  and  at  times  sheep  or  goats,  also  privileged  to  enjoy  its  warmth 
and  shelter.  Here  (it  may  be  within  sight  of  St.  Peter's  and  the  Lateran 
basilica)  does  this  rude  servant  of  the  soil  spend  the  long  seasons  of  his 
monotonous  existence,  till  the  summer-sultriness  obliges  him  to  migrate 
with  his  dogs  and  sheep.  The  usual  food  of  these  outcast-looking  beings 
is  black  bread  and  ricotta  (ewe's-milk  cheese).  Yet,  despite  his  wild 
and  savage  aspect,  this  shepherd,  on  near  approach,  proves  a  harmless 
creature  ;  will  sometimes  beg  in  the  humblest  tone  ;  and  has  the  re- 
putation of  being  consistently  devout,  his  religion  standing  him  in  the  stead 
of  knowledge  and  ideas." — Heman's  Story  of  Monuments  in  Rome. 

**  Vous  apercevez  (ja  et  li  quelques  bouts  de  voies  romaines  dans  des 
lieux  oil  il  ng  passe  plus  personne,  quelques  traces  dessechees  des  tor- 
rents de  I'hiver,  qui,  vues  de  loin,  ont  elles-memes  I'air  de  chemins 
battus  et  frequentes,  et  qui  ne  sont  que  le  lit  d'une  onde  orageuse,  qui 
s'est  ecoulee  comme  le  peuple  romain.  A  peine  decouvrez-vous 
quelques  arbres,  mais  vous  voyez  partout  des  ruines  d'aqueducs  et  de 
tombeaux  qui  semblent  etre  les  forets  et  les  plantes  indigenes  d'une 
terre  composee  de  la  poussiere  des  morts  et  des  debris  des  empires  ; 
solvent,  dans  une  grande  plaine,  j'ai  cru  voir  de  riches  moissons  ;  je 
m'en  approchais,  et  ce  n'etaient  que  des  herbes  fletries  qui  avaient 
trompe  mon  ceil.  Sous  ces  moissons  arides,  on  distingue  quelquefois 
les  traces  d'une  ancienne  culture.  Point  d'oiseaux,  point  de  mugisse- 
ments  de  troupeaux,  point  de  villages ;  un  petit  nombre  de  fermes 
delabrees  se  montrent  sur  la  nudite  des  champs ;  les  fenetrea  et  les 
portes  en  sont  fermees,  il  n'en  sort  ni  fumee,  ni  bruit,  ni  habitants.  Une 
eyp^ce  de  sauvage,  presque  nu,  pale  et  mine  par  la  fievre,  garde  seule- 
ment  ces  tristes  chaumieres,  comme  ces  spectres  qui,  dans  nos  his- 
toires  gothiques,   defendent  I'entree  des  chateaux  abandonnees.  .  .  . 


22  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Vous  croiriez  peut-etre,  d'apres  cette  description,  qu'il  n'y  a  rien  de  plus 
affreux  que  les  campagnes  romaines  ;  vous  vous  tromperiez  beaucoup  : 
elles  ont  une  inconcevable  gi-andeur." — Chateaubriand. 

In  this  vast  undulating  plain,  generally  occupying  some 
green  knoll,  washed  by  a  brook  at  its  base,  are  the  sites  of 
many  an  ancient  Latin  town  which  was  alternately  the 
enemy  and  the  ally  of  Rome.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of 
Ostia,  a  whole  city,  with  its  paved  streets,  its  narrow  shops, 
and  its  equally  miniature  temples,  has  been  laid  bare. 
Sometimes,  as  at  Veii,  Gabii,  and  Tusculum,  only  a  fragment 
of  ruin,  rising  here  and  there  above-ground,  marks  one  of 
the  principal  buildings — a  theatre  or  a  temple.  Often,  as 
at  Antemnse,  Fidenae,  Crustumerium,  and  Collatia,  only  the 
undulations  of  the  turf  attest  where  the  city  has  been. 

As  we  advance  into  the  hills,  where  they  were  more 
easily  protected,  the  ancient  cities  are  far  more  perfect; 
at  Tivoli  are  beautiful  miniature  temples  of  the  ancient 
Tibur ;  at  Sutri  is  its  wonderful  rock-hewn  amphitheatre ;  at 
Aquino  are  noble  remains  both  of  arches  and  temples  \ 
at  Cori  are  the  threefold  walls  which  gird,  and  the  rock 
temples  which  crown,  its  hill  top. 

Further  still  from  the  capital,  where  the  classical  buildings 
were  always  less  magnificent,  glorious  mediaeval  remains 
attest  the  presence  of  Popes  who  made  the  hill-towns  the 
fortified  residence  of  their  troubled  reigns.  The  massive 
remains  of  the  Papal  palaces  of  Anagni,  Viterbo,  and  Orvieto, 
with  the  glorious  churches  of  those  towns ;  the  gothic 
palace  of  Cardinal  Vitelleschi  at  Corneto ;  the  convents  of 
Monte  Cassino,  Subiaco,  Farfa,  Grotta  Ferrata,  Trisulti, 
Casamari,  and  Fossanuova ;  the  castles  and  towers  of 
Tivoli,  Bracciano,  Ostia,  Celano,  Avezzano,  Borghetto,  and 


INTROD  L/C  TOR  Y.  23 

^olsena ;  the  walls  of  Civita  Lavinia  and  Nepi, — attest  the 
tove  and  knowledge  of  art  and  beauty  which  flourished  in 
those  dark  ages. 

As  we  go  further  from  Rome,  too,  new  interests  are  sug- 
gested by  the  pelasgic  and  cyclopean  remains  at  Palestrina, 
Cori,  Norba,  Segni,  Alatri,  and  Arpino,  or  by  the  marvellous 
Etruscan  discoveries  of  Cervetri,  Corneto,  Vulci,  Norchia, 
and  Bieda. 

"The  excursions  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome  are  charming,  and 
would  be  full  of  interest  if  it  were  only  for  the  changing  views  they 
afford  of  the  wild  Campagna.  But  every  inch  of  ground,  in  every 
direction,  is  rich  in  associations,  and  in  natural  beauties.  There  is 
Albano,  with  its  lovely  lake  and  wooded  shore,  and  with  its  wine,  that 
certainly  has  not  improved  since  the  days  of  Horace,  and  in  these  times 
hardly  justifies  his  panegyric.  There  is  squalid  Tivoli,  with  the  river 
Anio,  diverted  from  its  course,  and  plunging  down,  headlong,  some 
eighty  feet  in  search  of  it.  With  its  picturesque  Temple  of  the  Sibyl, 
perched  high  on  a  crag  ;  its  minor  waterfalls  glancing  and  sparkling  in 
the  sun  ;  and  one  good  cavern  yawning  darkly,  where  the  river  takes 
a  fearful  plunge  and  shoots  on,  low  down  under  beetling  rocks.  There, 
too,  is  the  Villa  d'Este,  deserted  and  decaying  among  groves  of  melan- 
choly pine  and  cj^ress  trees,  where  it  seems  to  lie  in  state.  Then,  there 
is  Frascati,  and,  on  the  steep  above  it,  the  ruins  of  Tusculum,  where 
Cicero  lived,  and  wrote,  and  adorned  his  favourite  house  (some  fragments 
of  it  may  yet  be  seen  there),  and  where  Cato  was  born.  We  saw  its 
ruined  amphitheatre  on  a  grey  dull  day,  when  a  shrill  March  wind  was 
blowing,  and  when  the  scattered  stones  of  the  old  city  lay  strewn  about 
the  lonely  eminence,  as  desolate  and  dead  as  the  ashes  of  a  long-exim- 
guished  fire." — Dickens. 

"  Nothing  can  be  more  rich  and  varied,  with  every  kind  of  beauty, 
than  the  Campagna  of  Rome — sometimes,  as  around  Ostia,  flat  as  an 
American  prairie,  with  miles  of  canni  and  reeds  rustling  in  the  wind, 
fields  of  exquisite  feathery  grasses  waving  to  and  fro,  and  forests  of  tall 
golden -trunked  stone-pines  poising  their  spreading  umbrellas  of  rich 
green  high  in  the  air,  and  weaving  a  murmurous  roof  against  the  sun  ; 
sometimes  drear,  mysterious,  and  melancholy,  as  in  the  desolate  stretches 
between  Civita  Vecchia  and  Rome,  with  lonely  hollows  and  hills  without 
a  habitation,  where  sheep  and  oxen  feed,  and  the  wind  roams  over 
treeless  and  deserted  slopes,  and  silence  makes  its  home  ;  sometimes 


24  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

rolling  like  an  inland  sea  whose  waves  have  suddenly  been  checked  and 
stiffened,  green  with  grass,  golden  with  grain,  and  gracious  with  myriads 
of  wild  flowers,  where  scarlet  poppies  blaze  over  acres  and  acres,  and 
pink -frilled  daisies  cover  the  vast  meadows,  and  pendant  vines  shroud 
the  picturesque  ruins  of  antique  villas,  aqueducts,  and  tombs,  or  droop 
from  mediseval  towers  and  fortresses. 

*'  Such  is  the  aspect  of  the  Agro  Romano,  or  southern  portion  of 
the  Campagna  extending  between  Rome  and  Albano.  It  is  a  picture 
wherever  you  go.  The  land,  which  is  of  deep  rich  loam  that  repays 
a  hundred-fold  the  least  toil  of  the  farmer,  does  not  wait  for  the  help  of 
man,  but  bursts  into  spontaneous  vegetation  and  everywhere  laughs 
into  flowers.  Here  is  pasturage  for  millions  of  cattle,  and  grain  fields 
for  a  continent,  that  now  in  wild  untutored  beauty  bask  in  the  Italian 
sun,  crying  shame  on  their  neglectful  owners.  Over  these  long  unfenced 
slopes  one  may  gallop  on  horseback  for  miles  without  let  or  hindrance, 
through  meadows  of  green  smoothness  on  fire  with  scarlet  poppies — 
over  hills  crowned  with  ruins  that  insist  on  being  painted,  so  exquisite 
are  they  in  form  and  colour,  with  their  background  of  purple  moun- 
tains— down  valleys  of  pastoral  quiet,  where  great  tufa  caves  open 
into  subterranean  galleries  leading  beyond  human  ken  ;  or  one  may 
linger  in  lovely  secluded  groves  of  ilexes  and  pines,  or  track  the 
course  of  swift  streams  overhung  by  dipping  willows,  and  swerving  here 
and  there  through  broken  arches  of  antique  bridges  smothered  in  green  ; 
or  wander  through  hedges  heaped  and  toppling  over  with  rich  luxuriant 
foliage,  twined  together  by  wild  vetches,  honeysuckles,  morning-glories, 
and  every  species  of  flowering  vine ;  or  sit  beneath  the  sun -looped  shadows 
of  ivy-covered  aqueducts,  listening  to  the  song  of  hundreds  of  larks  far 
up  in  the  air,  and  gazing  through  the  lofty  arches  into  wondrous  deeps 
of  violet-hued  distances,  or  lazily  watching  flocks  of  white  sheep  as  they 
cross  the  smooth  slopes  guarded  by  the  faithful  watch-dog.  Everywhere 
are  deep  brown  banks  oi pozzolana  earth  which  makes  the  strong  Roman 
cement,  and  quarries  of  tufa  and  travertine  with  unexplored  galleries 
and  catacombs  honey-combing  for  miles  the  whole  Campagna.  Dead 
generations  lie  under  your  feet  wherever  you  tread.  The  place  is  haunted 
by  ghosts  that  outnumber  by  myriads  the  living,  and  the  air  is  filled  with 
a  tender  sentiment  and  sadness  which  makes  the  beauty  of  the  world 
about  you  more  touching.  You  pick  up  among  the  ruins  on  every  slope 
fragments  of  rich  marbles  that  once  encased  the  walls  of  luxurious  villas. 
The  cofttadino  or  shepherd  offers  you  an  old  worn  coin,  on  which  you 
read  the  name  of  Cccsar,  or  a  scarabceus  which  once  adorned  the  fingcj- 
of  an  Etruscan  king,  in  whose  dust  he  now  grows  his  beans,  or  the 
broken  head  of  an  ancii^nt  jar  in  marble  or  terra-cotta,  or  a  lacrymatory 


INTROD  UCTOR  K  25 

of  a  martyred  Christian,  or  a  vase  with  the  Etrurian  red  that  now  is  lost, 
or  an  intaglio  that  perhaps  has  sealed  a  love-letter  a  thousand  years 
ago." — Story's  Roba  di  Roma,  i.  313. 

From  the  unenclosed  nature  of  the  Campagna  and 
the  paucity  of  inhabitants,  all  the  ancient  land-marks  are 
more  easily  traced  here  than  in  other  parts  of  Italy. 

**  The  hills  of  Rome  are  such  as  we  rarely  see  in  England,  low  in 
height  but  with  steep  and  rocky  sides.  In  early  times  the  natural 
wood  still  remained  in  patches  amidst  the  buildings,  as  at  this  day 
it  still  grows  here  and  there  on  the  green  sides  of  the  Monte  Testaccio. 
Across  the  Tiber  the  ground  rises  to  a  greater  height  than  that  of  the 
Roman  hills,  but  its  summit  is  a  level  unbroken  line,  while  the  heights, 
which  opposite  to  Rome  itself  rise  immediately  from  the  river,  under 
the  names  of  Janiculus  and  Vaticanus,  then  sweep  away  to  some  distance 
from  it,  and  return  in  their  highest  and  boldest  form  at  the  Monte 
Mario,  just  above  the  Milvian  bridge  and  the  Flaminian  road.  Thus  to 
the  west  the  view  is  immediately  bounded  ;  but  to  the  north  and 
north-east  the  eye  ranges  over  the  low  ground  of  the  Campagna  to  the 
nearest  line  of  Apennines,  which  closes  up,  as  with  a  gigantic  wall, 
all  the  Sabine,  Latin,  and  Volscian  lowlands,  while  over  it  are  still 
distinctly  to  be  seen  the  high  summits  of  the  central  Apennines,  covered 
with  snow,  even  at  this  day,  for  more  than  six  months  in  the  year. 
South  and  south-west  lies  the  wide  plain  of  the  Campagna  j  its  level 
line  succeeded  by  the  equally  level  line  of  the  sea,  which  can  only 
be  distinguished  from  it  by  the  brighter  light  reflected  from  its  waters. 
Eastward,  after  ten  miles  of  plain,  the  view  is  bounded  by  the  Alban 
Hills,  a  cluster  of  high  bold  points  rising  out  of  the  Campagna,  like 
Arran  from  the  sea,  on  the  highest  of  which,  at  nearly  the  same  height 
with  the  summit  of  Helvellyn,  stood  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Latiaris, 
the  scene  of  the  common  worship  of  all  the  people  of  the  Latin  name. 
Immediately  under  this  highest  point  lies  the  crater-like  basin  of  the 
Alban  lake ;  and  on  its  nearer  rim  might  be  seen  the  trees  of  the 
grove  of  Ferentia,  where  the  Latins  held  the  great  civil  assemblies  of 
their  nation.  Further  to  the  north,  on  the  edge  of  the  Alban  Hills 
looking  towards  Rome,  was  the  town  and  citadel  of  Tusculum  ;  and 
beyond  this,  a  lower  summit  crowned  with  the  walls  and  towers  of 
Labicum  seems  to  connect  the  Alban  hills  with  the  line  of  the  Apennines 
just  at  the  spot  where  the  citadel  of  Prseneste,  high  up  on  the  mountain 
side,  marks  the  opening  into  the  country  of  the  Hernicans,  and  into 
the  valleys  of  the  streams  that  feed  the  Liris. 


26  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

*'  Returning  nearer  to  Rome,  the  lowland  country  of  the  Campagna 
is  broken  by  long  green  swelling  ridges,  the  ground  rising  and  falling, 
as  in  the  heath  country  of  Surrey  and  Berkshire.  The  streams  are 
dull  and  sluggish,  but  the  hill-sides  above  them  constantly  break  away 
into  little  rocky  cliffs,  where  on  every  ledge  the  wild  fig  now  strikes 
out  its  branches,  and  tufts  of  broom  are  clustering,  but  which  in  old 
times  formed  the  natural  strength  of  the  citadels  of  the  numerous  cities 
of  Latium.  Except  in  these  narrow  dells,  the  present  aspect  of  the 
country  is  all  bare  and  desolate,  with  no  trees  nor  any  human  habitation. 
But  anciently,  in  the  time  of  the  early  kings  of  Rome,  it  was  full  of 
independent  cities,  and  in  its  population  and  the  careful  cultivation 
of  its  little  garden-like  farms,  must  have  resembled  the  most  flourishing, 
parts  of  Normandy  or  the  Netherlands." — Arnold'' s  Hist,  of  Rome ^  vol. 
i.,  ch.  iii. 

Excursions  from  Rome  have  hitherto  been  usually  limited 

to  the  Alban  Hills  and  Tivoli,  or  at  most  Subiaco.     Thus 

foreigners   have  lost  not  only  enjoyment  of  much  that  is 

worth  seeing,  but  the  benefit  of  occasional  draughts  of  pure 

mountain  air,  which  would  do  much  to  keep  off  the  fevers 

to  which  too  many,  who  strictly  confine  themselves  to  the 

city-sights,  are  apt  to  fall  victims. 

You  enter  the  Campagna  and  "the  ancient  dust  and  mouldiness  of 
Rome,  the  dead  atmosphere  in  which  so  many  months  are  wasted, 
the  hard  pavements,  the  smell  of  ruin  and  decaying  generations,  the 
chill  palaces,  the  convent  bells,  the  heavy  incense  of  altars,  the  life 
led  in  the  dark  narrow  streets,  among  priests,  soldiers,  nobles,  artists, 
and  women  ;  all  the  sense  of  these  things  rises  from  the  consciousness 
like  a  cloud  which  has  imperceptibly  darkened  over  it." — Hawthorne. 

In  the  Campagna,  taken  in  its  narrower  sense,  the  Malaria 
is  always  sufficiently  alarming  to  make  it  desirable  to  avoid 
lingering  on  its  damp  grass,  and  especially  to  hesitate  about 
sketching  in  the  sunset.  Its  growth  is  most  mysterious,  but 
it  is  certainly  in  no  way  due,  as  is  often  stated,  to  the  mis- 
government  of  the  Popes. 

*'  '  Latifundia  perdidere  Italiam  *  (large  farms  were  the  ruin  of  Italy) 
is  the  expression  of  the  elder  Pliny  ;  and  in  reference  to  this  later  period 


INTRO D  UCTOR  V.  27 

does  Strabo  particularize  the  sites  on  the  Campagna  notoriously 
dangerous  to  inhabit  :— Ardea,  S?^tia  (now  Sezza),  Terracina,  &c.  In 
reference  to  this  does  Cicero  complain  of  the  fevers  prevailing  in  its 
low  districts  ;  and  Livy  laments  the  fate  of  the  retired  soldiers  doomed 
to  reside  on  this  soil — *  Se  militando  fessos  in  pestilent!  atque  arido, 
circa  urbem,  solo  luctari.'  Horace  also  observes  of  the  month  of 
August  in  the  city  *  Adducit  febres  et  testamenta  resignat.'  " — Hemans' 
Story  of  Monuments  in  Rome, 

Even  in  the  villas  at  Tivoli,  as  in  those  nearer  Rome, 
malaria  is  greatly  to  be  feared  towards  sunset. 

**  What  the  flaming  sword  was  to  the  first  Eden,  such  is  the  malaria 
to  these  sweet  gardens  and  groves.  We  may  wander  through  them  of 
an  afternoon,  it  is  true,  but  they  cannot  be  made  a  home  and  a  reality, 
and  to  sleep  among  them  is  death.  They  are  but  illusions,  therefore, 
like  the  show  of  gleaming  waters  and  shadowy  foliage  in  the  desert." — 
Transformation, 

But  malaria  does  not  penetrate  into  the  hills,  and  nothing 

can  be  more  healthy  and  invigorating  than  the  air  in  the 

more  distant  mountain  towns. 

The  middle  of  winter  should  be  devoted  to  the  city,  and 

to  the  nearer  Campagna  drives,  so  as  to  leave  many  spring 

days  for  the  hill-excursions,  which  will  then  have  a  charm 

none  who  have  not  felt  them  can  realize. 

"  About  your  feet  the  myrtles  will  be  set, 

Grey  rosemary,  and  thyme,  and  tender  blue 

Of  love-pale  labyrinthine  violet ; 

Flame-bom  anemones  will  glitter  through 
Dark  aisles  of  roofing  pine-trees  ;  and  for  you 

The  golden  jonquil  and  starred  asphodel 

And  hyacinth  their  speechless  tales  will  tell. 

The  nightingales  for  you  their  tremulous  song 
Shall  pour  amid  the  snowy  scented  bloom 

Of  wild  acacia  bowers,  and  all  night  long 

Through  starlight-flooded  spheres  of  purple  gloom 
Still  lemon-boughs  shall  spread  their  faint  perfume. 

Soothing  your  sense  with  odours  sweet  as  sleep. 

While  wind-stirred  cypresses  low  music  keep." — J.  A.  S, 


28  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"The  spring  came  ;  the  languid,  fragrant,  joyous  Italian  spring,  all 
sunshine  and  perfume,  and  singing  of  birds  and  blossoming  of  flowers. 
The  Easter  festivals  were  past,  and  the  strangers  dispersed  and  gone. 
The  snow  had  faded  from  the  summit  of  Soracte.  The  Coliseum  hung 
out  its  banners  of  fresh  green.  The  Campagna  glowed  under  the 
midday  sun,  like  a  Persian  carpet — one  wilderness  of  poppies  and 
harebells,  buttercups,  daisies,  wild  convolvuli,  and  purple  hyacinths. 
Every  crumbling  ruin  burst  into  blossom,  like  a  garden.  Every 
cultivated  patch  within  the  city  walls  ran  over,  as  it  were,  spontaneously, 
with  the  delicious  products  of  the  spring.  Every  stall  at  the  shady 
comer  of  every  quiet  piazza  was  piled  high  with  early  fruits :  and 
the  flower-girls  sat  all  day  long  on  the  steps  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti. 
Even  the  sullen  pulses  of  the  Tiber  seemed  stirred  by  a  more  genial 
current,  as  they  eddied  round  the  broken  piers  of  the  Ponte  Rotto. 
Even  the  solemn  sepulchres  of  the  Appian  Way  put  forth  long  feathery 
grasses  from  each  mouldering  cranny,  and  the  wild  eglantine  struck 
root  among  the  shattered  urns  of  the  roadside  columbarium.  Now, 
too,  the  transparent  nights,  all  spangled  with  fire-flies,  were  even  more 
balmy  than  the  days.  And  now  the  moon  shone  down  on  troops  of 
field-labourers  encamped  under  the  open  sky  against  the  city  walls  ;  and 
the  nightingales  sang  as  if  inspired,  among  the  shadowy  cypresses  of  the 
Protestant  burial-ground." — Barbara's  History. 

The  spring  in  Italy  is  the  time  for  active,  the  summer  for 
passive  enjoyment. 

"You  know  not  yet  the  enchantment  of  an  Italian  summer  amid 
Italian  hills  !  You  know  not  what  it  is  to  breathe  the  perfume  of  the 
orange-gardens — to  lie  at  noon  in  the  deep  shadow  of  an  ilex-grove, 
listening  to  the  ripple  of  a  legendary  spring,  older  than  history — to 
stroll  among  ruins  in  the  purple  twilight  !  Then  up  there,  far  from 
the  sultry  city  and  the  unhealthy  plains,  we  have  such  sunrises  and 
sunsets  as  you,  artists  though  you  be,  have  never  dreamt  of — there, 
where  the  cool  airs  linger  longest,  and  the  very  moon  and  stars  look 
more  golden  than  elsewhere." — BarbarcCs  History. 

In  the  mountain  towns,  living  is  exceedingly  economical. 
Even  at  the  hotels  there  are  few  places  where  the  charges 
ior  pension  including  everything  would  be  more  than  4J,  or 
at  most  5  francs  a  day,  while  in  lodgings  one  may  live  quite 
handsomely  for  25  francs  a  week.    All  prices  are  proportion- 


INTROD  UCTOR  Y.  29 

ately  small.  For  instance,  in  the  Abmzzi  a  whole  day's  journey 
by  diligence  seldom  costs  more  than  6  or  8  francs.  Of 
course  this  tariff  does  not  apply  to  Albano,  where  the  price 
of  everything  has  been  raised  by  foreign  interference,  but 
rather  to  places  which  are  not  much  frequented,  or  which 
are  resorted  to  by  Italians  of  the  lower-upper  or  mezzo-ceto 
classes,  who  would  simply  laugh  down  any  overcharge.  In 
some  of  these  places  there  are  charming,  happy  summer 
colonies,  which  migrate  to  the  fresher  air  like  the  swallows, 
as  regularly  as  the  hot  months  come  round.  To  L'Ariccia 
especially  the  artists  flock  forth,  and  there  and  at  Olevano 
they  make  their  summer  societies,  leading  an  innocent, 
merry  life  enough,  and,  while  rivals  in  their  art,  filled  with 
simple  kindnesses  for  one  another  ;  the  companionship  and 
good-fellowship  of  the  Via  Margutta  being  carried  on  in 
these  country  villages. 

**  The  life  of  the  student  in  Rome  should  be  one  of  unblended  enjoy- 
ment. If  he  loves  his  work,  or,  what  is  the  same,  if  he  throws  himself 
conscientiously  into  it,  it  is  sweetened  to  him  as  it  can  be  nowhere  else. 
His  very  relaxations  become  at  once  subsidiary  to  it,  yet  most  delight- 
fully recreative.  His  daily  walks  may  be  through  the  field  of  art,  his 
resting-place  in  some  seat  of  the  muses,  his  wanderings  along  the  stream 
of  time  bordered  by  precious  monuments.  He  can  never  be  alone ;  a 
thousand  memories,  a  thousand  associations  accompany  him,  rise  up  at 
every  step,  bear  him  along.  There  is  no  real  loneliness  in  Rome  now 
any  more  than  of  old,  when  a  thoughtful  man  could  say  that  '  he  was 
never  less  alone  than  when  alone.'  " — Cardinal  Wiseman. 

He  who  lives  long  in  one  of  these  country  places  will 
have  an  experience  of  Italian  character  which  no  town 
residence  will  give ;  and  will  be  astonished  at  the  amount  of 
quaint  folk  lore  and  historical  tradition  which  is  handed 
down  orally  in  a  population  which  can  seldom  read,  and  is 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  most  notorious  principles  of  modern 


30  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

information.  They  seldom  go  beyond  the  limits  of  their  own 
castelli,  except  that  all  have  probably  paid  one  visit  to 
Rome  in  their  lifetime,  to  receive  the  Easter  Benediction 
from  the  Holy  Father.  Their  animals  are  generally  like 
friends  to  them,  and  are  often  trained  in  a  wonderfully  human 
way — especially  their  pigs,  which  generally  live  in  the  houses, 
and  are  the  companions  of  their  daily  life.  A  pig  at  Subiaco 
danced  the  tarantella  like  a  human  being.  If  an  Italian 
peasant  were  told  that  there  was  no  future  state  for  his 
domestic  animals  he  would  be  very  incredulous.  "Sant' 
Antonio  abbia  pietk  delF  anima  sua,"  cried  Madame  de 
Stael's  Italian  coachman,  as  his  horse  fell  down  dead ;  and 
the  Intendente  of  the  Duke  of  Sermoneta,  writing  lately  to 
announce  that  a  number  of  his  pigs  had  died  in  the  country, 
said  simply,  "  Sono  andati  in  Paradiso." 

The  men  are  generally  far  more  instructed  than  the 
women,  whose  ideas  are  for  the  most  part  confined  to  what 
they  hear  in  the  churches,  and  to  the  stories  of  their  own 
village  or  of  the  saints. 

"  Among  us,  and  in  many  places,  the  coiitadina  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  wife,  the  female  of  the  contadino,  as  the  hen  is  the  female  of 
the  cock  ;  with  which,  except  in  sex,  it  has  life,  nourishment,  habits, 
all  in  common.  This  equality,  on  the  contrary,  in  certain  places  becomes 
destruction  and  loss  to  the  poor  woman.  Here,  for  example,  if  a  faggot 
of  wood  and  a  bunch  of  chickens  have  to  be  carried  down  to  the  shore 
from  one  of  the  villages  half-way  up  the  mountain,  the  labour  is  thus 
distributed  in  the  family  ;  the  wife  loads  herself  with  the  faggot  of  wood 
which  weighs  half  a  hundred-weight,  and  the  husband  will  take  the 
chickens  which  weigh  a  mere  nothing.  In  mountainous  places  it  is 
generally  thus.  It  is  curious  to  hear  the  cojitadini,  when  they  are  trying 
to  lift  a  weight,  if  they  find  it  heavy,  say,  as  they  quickly  put  it  down 
again,  '  It  is  woman's  work  I '  " — Massimo  d'Azeglio. 

"  From  a  people  so  original  and  so  ignorant  we  may  expect  many 
quaint  superstitions.  Accordingly  besides  ghosts  and  haunted  houses  we 
hear  of  the  lupo-manaro^  a  kind  of  were-wolf,  most  dangerous  on  rainy 


INTROD  UCTOR  V.  3  > 

nights  ;  of  witches  whom  you  may  keep  out  of  the  house  by  hanguig  a 
broom  at  the  window.  The  Roman  witch  seizes  eagerly  on  her  favourite 
steed,  and  with  the  muttered  charm, 

*  Sopr'  acqua  e  sopra  vento 
Portami  alia  noce  di  Benevento,' 

she  is  off  in  a  trice  to  join  her  Samnite  sisters.  If  a  Roman  housewife 
has  lost  anything,  she  will  repeat  Psalm  xci.,  '  Qui  habitat,'  quite  sure 
that  at  the  words  '  from  the  snare  of  the  hunter'  ( '  de  laqueo  venuntium ' — 
she  reads  it  '  acqua  di  Venanzio ')  the  truant  will  re-appear.  Then  she 
has  her  famous  *  Rimedii  SimpaticiH  To  cure  a  wart  you  must  tie  the 
finger  round  with  crimson  silk  ribbon :  for  a  sty,  pretend  to  sew  it  up 
with  needle  and  thread  :  for  a  boil,  get  a  poor  neighbour  to  beat  a 
frying-pan  at  your  door.  Their  faith  in  the  lottery  and  the  libro  deh ' 
arte  is  too  well  known  for  comment  ;  a  similar  reverence  is  paid  to 
the  weather-prophecies  of  the  almanac.  The  book  must  be  true,  they 
argue,  for  it  has  the  Imprimatur.'''' — Claude  Delaval  Cobham,  '^ Essay 
on  Belli:' 

In  Spite  of  the  richness  of  the  land,  and  in  spite  of  the 

fact  that  most  of  the  peasants  are  themselves  land-owners 

on  a  very  small  scale,  the  most  terrible  poverty  frequently 

prevails,  but  this  is  greater  in  the  Hemican  and  Equian  than 

in  the  Alban  Hills. 

"  Can  we  believe  that  amid  the  abundant  produce  of  the  land  the 
peasants  are  poor  ?  Looking  at  the  region,  it  appears  to  be  an  Eldorado 
of  happy  inhabitants  ;  but  living  with  them  in  the  paradise  of  Nature  we 
meet  too  often  with  starvation.  All  these  fruits  (twenty  figs  or  twenty 
walnuts  may  be  bought  here  for  one  bajocco,  and  in  good  years  a  bottle 
of  wine  for  the  same  price)  do  not  feed  the  peasant ;  he  would  starve  if 
he  had  not  the  meal  of  the  Turkish  corn,  which  is  his  only  food.  The 
fault  of  this  incongruity  lies  in  the  agrarian  condition.  To  begin  with, 
you  must  know  that  the  possessor  of  land  here  owes  the  fourth  part  of 
the  produce  as  rent  to  the  lord  of  the  soil.  It  is  the  old  curse  of  the 
latifundia  to  sink  the  people  in  poverty.  There  are  indeed  few  peasants 
who  do  not  possess  a  small  vineyard,  but  it  is  not  sufficient  to  maintain 
the  family.  Usury  is  unlimited  ;  even  from  the  poorest  ten  per  cent,  is 
taken.  The  smallest  misfortune,  or  a  bad  harvest,  brings  him  into  debt. 
If  he  borrows  money  or  grain  the  interest  burdens  him ;  the  avaricious 
rich  man  watches  for  the  time  of  want  to  wrest  the  land  from  the  small 
proprietor  for  a  nominal  price.     Barons  and  monasteries  grow  rich,  the 


32  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

peasant-farmer  becomes  their  vassal  and  vine-dresser.  As  a  rule  the 
transaction  takes  place  thus, — the  debtor  only  sells  the  soi]  ;  the  trees 
{gh  alberi,  which  includes  the  vines)  remain  his,  he  continues  to  culti- 
vate the  vineyard,  and  retains  for  himself  half  or  three-quarters  of  the 
produce.  Scarcely  a  year  passes,  and  the  same  vine-owner  appears 
before  the  purchaser  of  his  land  and  offers  him  the  trees  for  sale.  Now 
he  becomes  farmer  for  his  master,  inhabits  the  vineyard  with  his  family, 
and  continues  to  cultivate  it,  receiving  a  portion  of  the  produce.  This 
may  equal  or  even  exceed  that  of  the  present  proprietor,  but  yet  he  will 
find  himself  more  and  more  in  debt,  and  have  to  make  over  to  his  master 
no  small  proportion  of  his  gains  in  advance." — Gregorovius. 

The  simple  religious  faith  which  exists  amongst  the 
mountain  peasantry  is  most  touching  and  instructive.  The 
sound  of  the  angelus  bell  will  collect  the  whole  population 
of  one  of  the  small  Abruzzi  towns  in  its  churches,  and  the 
priests,  unlike  the  spectres  which  haunt  ultra-Protestant 
story-books,  are  more  frequently  simple  gentle  fathers  of 
their  people,  consulted  by  them  in  every  anxiety,  and 
trusted  in  every  difficulty.  The  open-air  life  in  many  ot 
these  villages,  where  all  the  spinning,  lace-making,  and 
other  avocations  are  carried  on  in  the  street,  brings  the 
people  wonderfully  together,  and  unites  their  interests  and 
associations  as  those  of  one  great  family,  and  if  a  poor 
person  dies,  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  the  whole  town  attend 
the  funeral,  while  orphans  who  have  been  born  in  the  place, 
become  regarded  as  universal  property,  and  receive  a  share 
of  the  attentions  and  ca^e  of  all.  On  a  summer's  evening, 
when  crowds  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  mountain  to^vn  are  sit- 
ting out  in  the  shady  street  at  their  work,  it  is  not  unusual  for 
one  of  them  to  take  up  one  of  the  long  melancholy  never- 
ending  songs  which  are  handed  down  here  for  generations, 
and  for  the  whole  people  to  join  in  the  choruses.  These 
songs  are  inexhaustible,  varying  from  the  short  lively  catches 


INTROD  UCTOR  V.  33 

in  two  lines  called  storneUi^  to  long  ballads  which  some- 
times succeed  one  another  in  more  than  a  hundred  verses. 
A  curious  collection  of  the  latter,  giving  their  variations 
according  to  the  different  towns  and  patois  in  which 
they  are  sung,  are  being  published,  under  the  name  of 
"  Canti  e  Eacconti  del  Popolo  Italiano,"  collected  by  D. 
Comparetti  and  A.  D'Ancona.  But  no  more  complete 
picture  of  the  manners  and  characteristics  of  the  lower 
classes  in  Eome  and  its  neighbourhood  can  be  found  than 
that  which  is  given  in  the  two  thousand  three  hundred  sonnets 
of  Belli  (1791 — 1863),  who,  himself  one  of  "the  people," 
wrote  with  the  very  essence  of  their  feeling.  There  is  a 
charming  volume  on  "The  Folklore  of  Eome,"  by  E.  H.  Busk. 
Eiding  is  the  best  means  of  seeing  the  Campagna  imme- 
diately around  Eome  ;  indeed  there  are  many  interesting 
places,  such  as  Eustica  on  the  Anio,  which  cannot  be 
reached  in  a  carriage.  But  for  the  longer  excursions  it  is 
far  best  to  adopt  whatever  is  the  usual  means  of  locomotion 
in  the  district,  generally  some  high-slung  Baroccino.  In 
the  Abruzzi,  diligences  are  universally  used,  and,  where  the 
distances  are  so  great  between  one  town  and  another,  they  are 
quite  a  necessity.  In  some  places  these  are  of  the  most 
primitive  construction,  and  in  mountainous  districts  are 
always  drawn  by  oxen  placed  in  front  of  the  horses,  while 
the  harness  of  the  latter,  thickly  adorned  with  bells,  feathers, 
and  little  brass  figures  of  saints,  is  quite  an  artistic  study. 
Diligence  life  is  a  phase  of  Italian  existence  which  no  one 
should  omit  trying  at  least  once,  or  rather  that  of  the  public 
carriages  which  ply  slowly  between  the  different  surrounding 
towns  and  the  capital.  In  a  vehicle  of  this  kind  one 
cannot  fail  to  be  thrown  into  the  closest  juxtaposition  with 

VOL.  I.  3 


34  I>A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

one's  neighbours,  and  nowhere  is  the  universal  national 
bonhommie  and  good  fellowship  more  conspicuous.  Sup- 
pose you  are  at  Tivoli  and  wish  to  go  to  Rome.  The 
diligence  starts  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  You  walk  to  it 
from  your  inn,  with  a  porter  carrying  your  portmanteau. 
You  find  it  under  a  dark  archway ;  a  lumbering  vehicle, 
something  like  a  heavy  though  very  dilapidated  fly,  with 
three  lean  unkempt  horses  attached  to  it  by  ropes.  The 
company  is  already  assembled  and  greet  you  as  if  you  were 
an  old  acquaintance.  There  is  a  fat  monk  in  a  brown 
habit  which  does  not  smell  very  good,  a  woman  in  pan?io 
and  large  gold  ear-rings,  a  young  office  clerk,  a  girl  of  six- 
teen, and  a  little  child  of  two.  The  young  man  sits  by  the 
driver,  all  the  rest  go  inside.  There  is  endless  delay  in 
starting,  for  when  you  are  just  going  off,  the  rope-harness 
gives  way  and  has  to  be  mended.  You  begin  to  feel  impa- 
tient, but  find  nobody  cares  in  the  least,  so  you  think  it  is  not 
worth  while.  You  get  in,  and  find  the  interior  very  mouldy, 
with  tattered  sides,  and  dirty  straw  on  the  floor.  The  most 
unimaginable  baggage  is  being  packed  on  the  roof.  The 
gossippy  conduitore  leans  against  the  portico  smoking 
cigarettes,  and  regaling  Tivoli  with  the  scandal  of  Eome. 
An  important  stalliere  in  rags  stands  by  and  demands  his 
fee  of  one  soldo.  At  last  the  company  are  desired  to 
mount.  The  diligence  is  moving :  it  is  an  immense  excitement : 
there  is  quite  a  rush  of  children  down  the  street  to  see  it. 
The  vehicle  creaks  and  groans.  Surely  the  ropes  are  going  to 
break  again ;  but  no,  they  actually  hold  firm  this  time  and 
the  carriage  starts,  rocking  from  side  to  side  of  the  rugged 
pavement,  amid  the  remonstrances  of  the  woman  in  the  ear- 
rings, whose  daughter  has  not  been  able  to  embrace  her, 


INTROD  UCTOR  Y.  35 

and  who  shrieks  out  of  the  window,  "  Ma,  Nino,  Nino,  non 
ho  baciato  la  figlia  mia." 

You  do  not  get  far  before  the  fleas  become  active  and  a 
universal  scratching  begins.  The  child  squeals.  Then  the 
monk  gives  it  a  lollypop  and  begins  a  long  story  about  an 
image  in  his  convent  which  winked  twice — ringraziamo  Dio 
— actually  twice^  on  the  eve  of  Ascension  Day.  You  can 
hardly  hear,  for  you  are  going  down  a  hill  and  the  carriage 
rocks  so,  and  the  bells  make  such  a  noise.  Suddenly  there 
is  a  regular  outcry,  "  Oh,  Madonna  Santissima  !  "  the  young 
girl  is  taken  worse.  ...  "  Oh,  povera  piccina  ! "  You 
stop  for  a  little  while,  and  are  glad  to  escape  even  for  a 
minute  from  the  overwhelming  smell  of  cheese  and  garlic 
which  rises  from  a  basket  your  next  neighbour  has  placed  at 
your  feet.  All  is  perfect  good  humour,  the  invalid  recovers, 
you  mount  once  more,  the  driver  sings  stornelli  in  a  loud 
ringing  voice  :  the  monk  hands  round  his  snuff-box :  you 
sneeze,  and  all  the  company  say  "  Felicita  " — and  so  on,  till, 
when  you  reach  the  walls  of  Rome,  you  are  all  the  greatest 
friends  in  the  world,  and  you  shake  hands  all  round  when 
you  part,  amid  a  chorus  of  "  a  rivederla  Signore  ! " 

It  is  melancholy  to  think  how  many  people  are  deterred 
from  the  great  enjoyment  which  is  to  be  obtained  from  these 
Italian  mountain  excursions  by  imaginary  fears  of  brigands. 
Of  course  it  is  just  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  a 
casualty  might  occur,  but,  except  perhaps  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Palestrina  or  the  Pontine  Marshes,  the  chances  are 
exceedingly  remote,  and  as  a  general  rule  the  more  distant 
places  are  the  safest.  Those  who  stay  amongst  the  cordial, 
frank,  friendly  people  of  most  of  the  mountain  towns,  or  who 
visit  the  beautiful  prosperous  valley  of  the  Liris,  would  smile 


36  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

at  the  very  idea  of  an  adventure ;  and,  in  the  nearer  Cam- 
pagna,  the  buffaloes,  and  still  more  the  shepherd  dogs,  are 
far  more  to  be  dreaded  by  lonely  pedestrians  than  the  in- 
habitants. Tourists  who  are  content  to  travel  simply  to  live 
with  and  like  the  people  they  are  amongst,  and  especially 
who  can  sign  ^^ pittore  "  to  the  description  of  their  profession 
required  in  strangers'  books  at  the  inns,  are  not  only  Hkely  to 
be  unmolested,  but  cordially  welcomed  and  kindly  treated, 
however  savage  the  aspect  of  nature  may  be  in  the  country 
in  which  they  are  wandering.  The  times  are  quite  passed 
when  picturesque  groups  surrounded  every  carriage  which 
appeared  in  a  remote  place,  and  commanded  its  occupants 
to  "  saltar  fuora"  as  the  expression  was.  The  brigand 
stories  of  the  last  century  are  preserved  in  English  country 
houses,  and  served  up  for  the  benefit  of  any  member  of  the 
family  who  may  be  travelling  south,  as  if  they  were  events  of 
to-day.  But  those  who  entertain  these  fears  do  not  realize 
how  very  small  the  proportion  of  robberies  and  murders  is  in 
Italy  compared  to  that  of  their  own  country — and  do  not 
know  that  no  well-authenticated  case  can  be  ascertained  of 
a  foreigner  having  been  either  murdered  or  carried  off  by 
brigands,  north  of  the  old  Neapolitan  states,  since  the  time 
of  railways.  Events  which  would  curdle  the  blood  of  every 
Italian  throughout  the  country  pass  almost  unnoticed  in 
England.  For  instance,  what  detail  of  old  Italian  brigandage 
was  ever  half  so  horrible  as  the  sentence  which  was  appended 
to  the  account  of  the  dreadful  railway  accident  at  Merthyr 
Tydvil  (May,  1874)  in  the  Times : — "We  regret  to  say  that 
the  poor  women  most  injured  were  robbed  of  their  purses 
even  before  they  could  be  extricated  from  the  ruins  of  the 
carriages  ! "     Or,  what  tale  of  Italian  ferocity  ever  equalled 


INTRODUCTORY.  37 

that  of  the  Liverpool  "  roughs  "  (August,  1874),  who,  when  a 
respectable  citizen  refused  to  give  up  his  money,  deliberately 
kicked  him  to  death,  in  the  presence  of  his  wife  and  brother, 
who  were  themselves  terribly  injured  in  endeavouring  to 
defend  him.  Even  from  brigands,  if  they  are  Italian,  a 
woman  would  be  almost  certain  to  meet  with  nothing  but 
personal  kindness  and  respect,  and  a  suffering  woman  could 
not  be  sufficiently  commiserated  or  assisted. 

An  equally  false  impression  exists  in  England  as  to 
middle  and  upper  classes  in  Central  Italy,  who  are  generally 
represented  and  believed  to  be  little  better  than  well-dressed 
clo^vns,  selfish,  egotistical,  frivolous,  uneducated,  ground 
down  by  superstition,  devoid  of  all  the  habits  of  cleanly  and 
civilized  life.  Such  misconceptions  will  soon  vanish  from 
the  minds  of  those  who  are  at  the  pains  to  furnish  themselves 
with  introductions  to  the  resident  gentry  on  their  mountain 
excursions,  and  who  enjoy  the  friendly  cordial  hospitality  of 
the  many  happy  family  homes,  in  which  generation  after 
generation  have  lived  honoured  and  beloved,  while  in  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  country-houses,  as  well  as  in  those 
of  many  of  the  Roman  palaces,  the  same  cultivation  and  ac- 
complishments will  be  found  which  exist  in  a  similar  class  in 
England,  illuminated  by  that  native  grace  and  natural  quick- 
ness and  brilliancy  which  is  seldom  seen  out  of  Italy. 

"Any  one  who  has  been  at  the  pains  to  seek  a  friendship,  and  has 
been  lucky  enough  to  find  one,  among  the  sons  of  modern  Rome,  will 
not  be  slow  in  doing  justice  to  their  charms  ;  the  faithfulness,  warmth, 
tact,  good  humour,  the  grace  of  manner,  the  courage  and  tenderness, 
and  that  dignity  of  manhood  which  is  so  well  reflected  in  the  strong 
straight  limbs,  bright  skin,  rippling  hair,  and  sunny  faces,  so  well 
known  to  the  loungers  in  the  Corso,  or  on  the  Pincian  hill.  Let  us  not 
judge  the  Roman  harshly.  His  history  has  been  strangely  chequered, 
and  his  energies  may  have  varied  with  his  fortunes.     Sometimes,  like 


38  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Rienzi,  he  may  still  mistake  memories  for  hopes,  idle  visions  of  past 
greatness  for  that  inspiration  which  is  the  eai"nest  of  future  glory  : 
'  At  non  omnia  perdidit,  neque  omnes.'  " 

Claude  Delaval  Cobham. 

With  regard  to  the  best  seasons  for  the  excursions  from 
Eome,  those  who  reach  Central  Italy  in  October  will  find 
that  month  far  the  best  for  a  tour  in  the  Abruzzi,  before  the 
winter  snows  have  set  in.  Subiaco  and  its  surroundings  are 
gloriously  beautiful  in  November,  and  are  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  tints  of  the  decaying  vegetation,  the  absence  of 
which  is  much  felt  in  spring  when  the  valley  between 
Subiaco  and  Tivoli  looks  bare  and  colourless. 

During  the  winter  months  many  of  the  shorter  excursions 
may  be  pleasantly  made  from  Eome  in  a  carriage  or  on 
horseback,  and  a  tramontana,  if  not  too  severe,  will  be 
found  most  agreeable  by  pedestrians  in  the  valleys  of  Veii, 
or  on  the  heights  of  Tusculum.  The  railway  to  Frascati 
opens  many  delightful  and  short  excursions,  and  may  always 
give  a  perfect  country  change  of  a  few  hours.  In  March, 
Alatri,  Anagni,  Cori,  and  Segni  may  be  visited,  with  many 
other  places  in  that  district,  but  March  is  an  uncertain 
month  because  "  Marzo  e  pazzo,"  for  it  is  the  time,  say 
Italians,  "  when  men  did  kill  God." 

' '  A  reverend  meteorologist  accounted  for  the  cold  in  Lent,  by  saying 
that  it  was  a  mortification  peculiar  to  the  holy  season,  and  would  con- 
tinue till  Easter,  because  it  was  cold  when  Peter  sate  at  the  High 
Priest's  fire  on  the  eve  of  the  Crucifixion." — Forsyth. 

But  April  is  the  pleasantest  month  of  all,  and  then 
should  be  made  the  enchanting  excursion  to  Soracte, 
Caprarola,  and  the  Ciminian  Hills — which  may  be  extended 
to  Orvieto,  whence  those  who  do  not  wish  to  return  to 
Rome  may  continue  their  journey  northwards. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OSTIA  AND  CASTEL  FUSANO. 

(This  excursion  can  easily  be  managed  in  the  day.  P  revisions  must 
be  taken,  as  there  is  no  inn  at  Ostia,  and  visitors  to  Castel  Fusano  must 
provide  themselves  the  day  before  with  an  order  (given  on  presenting  a 
card  with  a  request,  at  the  Chigi  Palace  in  the  Corso)  to  put  up  their 
horses  there.  Two  hours  suffice  to  see  Ostia,  but  as  much  time  as  pos- 
sible should  be  given  to  Castel  Fusano.) 

IT  was  in  the  freshness  of  an  early  morning  of  most 
brilliant  sunshine,  that  we  drove  out  of  the  old  crumbling 
Ostian  gate  now  called  Porta  San  Paolo,  which  Belisarius 
built,  and  where  Totila  and  Genseric  entered  Rome,  and 
passed  beneath  the  Pyramid  of  Caius  Cestius,  which  for 
nineteen  hundred  years  has  cast  its  pointed  shadow  over 
the  turfy  slopes,  where  foreign  Christians,  gathered  from  so 
many  distant  lands,  now  sleep  in  Christ.  This  pyramid 
St.  Paul  looked  upon  as  he  was  led  out  to  execution 
beyond  the  city  walls,  and  it  may  be  considered  as  "  the 
sole  surviving  witness  of  his  martyrdom."  A  little  further 
and  we  pass  the  "  Chapel  of  the  Farewell,"  which  marks 
the  site  of  his  legendary  leave-taking  with  St.  Peter,  and  is 
adorned  with  a  bas-relief  of  the  two  aged  martyrs  embrac- 
ing for  the  last  time,  and  inscriptions  of  the  words  they 
are  reported  to  have  spoken  to  one  another.  Then  we 
reach  the  great  basilica,  once  surrounded  by  the  flourishing 
fortified  village  of  Joanopolis,  but  now  standing  alone  in 


40  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

solitary  abandonment,  even  the  monks,  who  scantily  occupy 
its  adjoining  convent,  being  obliged  to  fly  into  the  town 
before  the  summer  malaria.  Outside,  the  restored  church 
has  no  features  of  age  or  grandeur,  but  within,  as  the  eye 
passes  down  its  unbroken  lines  of  grey  columns,  sur- 
mounted by  a  complete  series  of  papal  portraits,  it  may 
rest  upon  the  magnificent  mosaics  of  the  tribune,  and 
the  grand  triumphal  arch  of  Galla  Placidia,  relics  of  the 
venerable  basilica  which  perished  by  fire  on  the  night  of 
the  T5th  of  July,.  1823,  on  which  Pius  VII.  lay  dying, 
who  had  long  been  a  monk  within  its  walls,  and  to  whom 
the  watchers  by  his  death-bed  never  ventured  to  tell  the 
great  catastrophe  .with  which  the  sky  was  red,  though  as 
his  last  moments  approached,  he  is  believed  to  have  seen  it 
in  a  troubled  vision. 

Beyond  San  Paolo,  and  indeed  all  the  way  from  thence 
to  Ostia,  the  road  was  once  bordered  with  villas,  but  now 
there  are  only  three  cottages  in  the  whole  distance,  which 
is  bare  or  solemn  as  the  feelings  of  those  who  visit  it.  It 
leads  through  the  monotonous  valley  of  the  Tiber,  where 
buffaloes  and  grand  slow-moving  bovi  feed  amid  the  rank 
pastures  which  are  white  with  narcissus.  Here  and  there  a 
bit  of  tufa  rock  crops  up  crested  with  ilex  and  laurestinus. 
A  small  Roman  bridge  called  Ponte  della  Eefolta  is  passed. 
At  length,  on  mounting  a  slight  hill,  we  come  upon  a  wide 
view  over  the  pale-blue  death-bearing  marshes  of  the  Ma- 
remma,  here  called  Campo-morto,  to  the  dazzling  sea,  and 
almost  immediately  enter  a  forest  of  brushwood,  chiefly 
myrtle  and  phillyrea,  from  which  we  only  emerge  as  we 
reach  the  narrow  singular  causeway  leading  to  Ostia  itself. 
It  is  a  strange  scene,  not  unlike  the  approach  to  Mantua 


APPROACH  TO  OSTIA, 


41 


upon  a  small  scale.  On  either  side  stretch  the  still  waters 
of  the  pestiferous  lagoon,  called  the  Stagno,  waving  with 
tall  reeds  which  rustle  mournfully  in  the  wind,  and  white 
with  floating  ranunculus.  To  the  left,  a  serrated  outline  of 
huge  pine-tops  marks  the  forest  of  Fusano ;  to  the  right  we 
see  the  grey  towers  of  Porto,  the  cathedral  of  Hippolytus, 
and  the  tall  campanile  which  watches  over  the  Isola  Sacra, 
where,  with  a  feeling  fitting  the  mysterious  sadness  of  the 
place,  Dante  makes  souls  wait  to  be  ferried  over  into  pur- 
gatory. Large  sea-birds  swoop  over  the  reedy  expanse.  In 
front  the  mediaeval  castle  rises  massive  and  grey  against  the 
sky-line.  As  we  approach,  it  increases  in  grandeur,  and  its 
huge  machicolations  and  massive  bastions  become  visible. 
The  desolate  causeway  is  now  peopled  with  marble  figures ; 
heroes  standing  armless  by  the  wayside,  ladies  reposing 
headless  amid  the  luxuriant  thistle-growth.  Across  the 
gleaming  water  we  see  the  faint  snowy  peaks  of  the 
Leonessa.  On  each  sandbank,  rising  above  the  Stagno,  are 
works  connected  with  the  salt  mines  founded  by  King  Ancus 
Martius,  twenty-five  centuries  ago,  and  working  still.  They 
have  always  been  important,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  name 
of  one  of  the  gates  of  Rome,  the  Porta  Salara,  through 
which  the  inhabitants  of  the  Sabina  passed  with  their  pur- 
chases of  Ostian  salt. 

Every  artist  will  sketch  the  Castle  of  Ostia,  and  will 
remember  as  he  works,  that  Raphael  sketched  it  long  ago, 
and  that,  from  his  sketch,  Giovanni  da  Udine  painted  it  in 
the  background  of  his  grand  fresco  of  the  victory  over  the 
Saracens,  in  the  Stanza  of  the  Incendio  del  Borgo  in  the 
Vatican,  for  here  the  enemy  who  had  totally  destroyed  the 
ancient  town  in  the  fifth  century,  were  as  totally  defeated  in 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


the  reign  of  Leo  IV.  (a.d.  847 — 856).  Procopius  in  the 
sixth  century  wrote  of  Ostia  as  "  a  city  nearly  overthrown." 
The  present  town  is  but  a  fortified  hamlet,  built  by  Gregory 
IV.,  and  originally  called  by  him  Gregoriopolis.  It  was 
strengthened  by  Nicholas  I.  in  858.  In  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury Cardinal  d'Estouteville  employed  Sangallo,  who  lived 
here  for  two  years,  in  building  the  castle,  and  Giuliano 
della  Rovere,  afterwards  Pope  Julius  II.  and  then  cardinal 
bishop  of  Ostia,  continued  the  work.     Here  he  took  refuge 


Castle  of  Ostia. 

for  two  years  from  the  persecution  of  Alexander  VI. 
Afterwards  he  imprisoned  Csesar  Borgia  here  in  15 13,  whose 
escape  was  connived  at  by  Cardinal  Carbajal,  to  whose 
care  he  was  intrusted.  Nothing  remains  of  the  internal 
decorations  but  some  mouldering  frescoes  executed  by 
Baldassare  Peruzzi  and  Cesare  da  Sesto  for  Cardinal  della 
Rovere,  but  the  outer  walls  are  so  covered  with  the 
escutcheons  of  their  different  papal  owners  as  "  to  form  a 
veritable  chapter  of  pontifical  heraldry."  Conspicuous 
amongst  these  grand  coats  of  arms  are  the  oak-tree  (Robur) 
of  the  Delia  Rovere,  and   the  wreathed   column  of   the 


OSTIA.  43 

Colonna.  On  the  battlements  above,  masses  of  the  blue- 
green  wormwood,  which  is  a  lover  of  salt  air  and  scanty 
soil,  wave  in  the  wind.  Artists  will  all  regret  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  tall  pine,  so  well  known  till  lately  in  pictures  of 
Ostia,  which  stood  beside  the  tower,  till  it  died  in  1870. 

The  tiny  town,  huddled  into  the  narrow  fortified  space, 
which  forms  as  it  were  an  outer  bastion  of  the  castle,  con- 
tains the  small  semi-Gothic  cathedral,  a  work  of  Baccio  Pin- 
telli,  \vith  a  rose-window,  but  scarcely  larger  than  a  chapel, 
and  seeming  out  of  keeping  with  the  historical  recollections 
which  we  have  of  many  mighty  cardinal  bishops.  Some  ac- 
counts state  that  this  most  ancient  see  was  founded  by  the 
apostles  themselves ;  others  consider  that  Pope  Urban  I. 
(a.d.  222)  was  its  founder,  and  announce  St.  Ciriacus  as  its 
first  bishop.  It  is  the  bishop  of  Ostia  who  has  always  been 
called  upon  to  ordain  a  pope  who  has  not  been  in  priests' 
orders  at  the  time  of  his  election,  and  he  bears  the  title  of 
"  Dean  of  the  Sacred  College."* 

A  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond  the  mediaeval  town  we 
enter  upon  the  ancient  city.  It  is  like  Pompeii.  The  long 
entrance  street,  now  quite  unearthed,  is  paved  with  great 
blocks  of  lava  closely  dovetailed  into  one  another,  and  is 
lined  with  the  low  ruins  of  small  houses  and  shops,  chiefly 
built  of  brick,  set  in  opus  reticidatum.  Here  and  there  a  tall 
grey  sarcophagus  stands  erect ;  but  no  building  remains  per- 
fect in  the  whole  of  the  great  town,  which  once  contained 
eighty  thousand  inhabitants.  Thistles  flourish  everywhere, 
and  snakes  and  lizards  abound,  and  glide  in  and  out  of  the 
hot  unshaded  stones.     After  a  time  we  turn  into  other  and 

*  The  towns  of  Ostia,  Portus,  Silva  Candida,  Sabina,  Praeneste,  Tusculum,  and 
Albanum,  were  the  sees  of  seven  suffragan  bishops,  afterwards  called  cardinal  bishops, 
of  whom  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  in  a  special  sense  the  Metropolitan. 


44  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

smaller  streets,  in  some  of  which  there  are  evident  remains 
of  pillared  porticoes.  A  temple  of  Mithras,  supposed  to  be 
of  the  date  of  the  Antonines,  has  been  identified  by  the  in- 
scription on  its  pavement,  "  Soli  Invict.  Mit.  D.  D.  L.  Agrius 
Calendio."  Three  statues  of  Mithraic  priests  were  found 
near  its  altar.  Baths,  richly  decorated  with  mosaics,  have 
also  been  discovered. 

In  the  streets,  the  marks,  the  deep  ruts  of  the  chariot- 
wheels — obliged  by  the  narrow  space  to  run  always  in  the 
same  groove,  remain  in  the  pavement.  The  ground  is 
littered  with  pieces  of  coloured  marble,  and  of  ancient  glass 
tinted  with  all  the  hues  of  a  peacock's  tail  by  its  long  inter- 
ment. The  banks  are  filled  with  fragments  of  pottery,  and 
here  and  there  of  human  bones.  The  whole  scene  is 
melancholy  and  strange  beyond  description.  Emerging 
from  the  narrow,  almost  oppressive  confinement  of  the 
ruined  streets,  upon  higher  ground  still  unexcavated,  which 
stretches  away  in  ashy  reaches  to  the  mouths  of  the  Tiber 
and  the  sea,  we  find  a  massive  quadrangular  building  of 
brick,  which  is  more  stately  and  perfect  than  anything  else, 
and  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  temple  of  Jupiter.  It  con- 
tains its  ancient  altar. 

Ancus  Martius  was  the  original  founder  of  Ostia,  which 
then  stood  upon  the  sea-shore,  and  for  hundreds  of  years  it 
was  the  place  where  the  great  Roman  expeditions  were  em- 
barked for  the  subjugation  of  the  provinces.  Chief  among 
these  were  the  expedition  of  Scipio  Africanus  to  Spain,  and 
that  of  Claudius  to  Britain.  It  was  in  the  time  of  Claudius 
that  the  town  obtained  its  chief  importance.  He  dearly 
loved  his  sea-port,  often  stayed  here,  and  it  was  from  hence 
that   he   was   summoned   to    Rome   by  the   news   of   the 


S.  AUGUSTINE  AT  OS TIA.  45 

iniquities  which  led  to  the  death  of  Messalina.  In  his  time 
the  sand  was  already  beginning  to  accumulate  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Tiber,  and  Ostia  was  soon  after  ruined,  paling  before 
the  prosperity  of  Porto.  In  consequence  of  the  changes  in 
the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  which  has  no  longer  the  graceful 
course  and  the  woody  banks  described  by  Virgil,  it  is  diffi 
cult  to  ascertain  the  site  of  the  ancient  harbour.  It  is  even 
disputed  through  how  many  channels  the  river  entered  the 
sea ;  Dionysius,  in  his  "  Periegesis,"  declares  that  it  had 
only  one  ;  Ovid  alludes  to  two. 

"Ostia  contigerat,  qua  se  Tiberinus  in  altum 

Dividit,  et  campo  liberiore  natat." — Fast.  iv.  291. 

"  Fluminis  ad  flexum  veniunt  ;  Tiberina  priores 

Ostia  dixerunt,  unde  sinister  abit." — Fast.  iv.  329. 

But  from  these  classical  recollections  the  Christian  pilgrim 
will  turn  with  enthusiasm  to  later  memories,  as  precious  and 
beautiful  as  any  that  the  Campagna  of  Rome  can  afford,  and 
he  will  see  Augustine,  with  his  holy  mother,  Monica,  sitting, 
as  in  Ary  Scheffer's  picture,  at  "a  curtain  window,"  dis- 
coursing alone,  together,  very  sweetly,  and,  "  forgetting  those 
things  which  are  behind  and  reaching  forth  to  those  things 
which  are  before,"  inquiring  in  the  presence  of  the  Truth  of 
what  sort  the  eternal  life  of  the  saints  was  to  be,  and  "  gasp- 
ing with  the  mouths  of  their  hearts "  after  the  heavenly 
streams  of  the  fountain  of  life.  Then,  as  the  world  and 
all  its  delights  become  contemptible  in  the  nearness  into 
which  their  converse  draws  them  to  the  unseen,  he  will  hear 
the  calm  voice  of  Monica  in  the  twiUght  telling  her  son  that 
her  earthly  hopes  and  mission  are  fulfilled,  and  that  she  is 
only  waiting  to  depart,  "  since  that  is  accomplished  for 
which  she  had  desired  to  linger  awhile  in  this  life,  that  she 


46  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

might  see  him  a  Catholic  Christian  before  she  died."  He 
will  remember  that  five  days  after  this  conversation,  Monica 
lay  in  Ostia  upon  her  death-bed,  and  waking  from  a  long 
swoon,  and  looking  fixedly  on  her  two  sons  standing  by  her, 
"  with  grief  amazed,"  said  to  Augustine,  "  Here  thou  shalt 
bury  thy  mother ; "  and  that  to  those  who  asked  whether 
she  was  not  afraid  to  leave  her  body  so  far  from  her  own 
city,  she  replied,  "  Nothing  is  far  to  God  \  nor  is  it  to  be 
feared  lest  at  the  end  of  the  world  He  should  not  recognize 
whence  to  raise  me  up."  And  here  "  on  the  ninth  day  of 
her  sickness,  and  the  fifty-sixth  year  of  her  age,  was  that 
religious  and  holy  soul  freed  from  the  body."  The  bones  of 
Monica  were  moved  afterwards  to  Rome,  to  the  church 
which  was  dedicated  to  her  son's  memory ;  but  it  is  Ostia 
which  will  always  be  connected  with  the  last  scenes  of  that 
most  holy  life,  and  at  Ostia  that  Augustine  describes  the 
"  mighty  sorrow  which  flowed  into  his  heart,"  the  tears  and 
outcries  of  "  the  boy  Adeodatus,"*  as  the  beloved  mother 
sank  into  her  last  sleep  j  how  Euodius  calmed  their  grief 
by  taking  up  the  Psalter,  and  how  all  the  mourning  house- 
hold sang  the  psalm,  "  I  will  sing  of  mercy  and  judgment  to 
thee,  O  Lord,"  around  the  silent  corpse  ;  and  lastly,  how  the 
body  was  carried  to  the  burial,  and  they  "  went  and  returned 
without  tears — for  the  bitterness  of  sorrow  could  not  exude 
out  of  the  heart." 

With  these  recollections  in  our  minds,  let  us  leave  Ostia. 
It  is  a  curious  and  deeply  interesting,  but  not  a  beautiful 
place,  and  it  is  a  strange  contrast,  when  we  have  returned 
once  more  to  the  old  fortress,  and,  turning  sharply  round  its 
walls,  traversed  the  two  miles  of  desolate  campagna  between 

*  The  son  of  Augustine. 


APPROACH  TO  CAS  TEL  FUSANO. 


47 


it  and  the  pine-wood,  to  find  in  Castel  Fusano  an  absolute 
climax  of  poetical  loveliness.  The  peasants  do  all  their 
field  labour  here  in  gangs,  men  and  women  together,  and 
most  picturesque  they  look,  for  the  costumes  which  are 
dying  out  in  Rome  are  universally  worn  here,  and  all  the 
women  have  their  heads  shaded  by  white  panni^  and  are 
dressed  in  bright  pink  and  blue  petticoats  and  laced  bodices. 
They  have  hard  work  to  fight  against  the  deep-rooted 
asphodels,  which  overrun  whole  pastures  and  destroy  the 
grass,  and  they  have  also  the  constantly  recurring  malaria  to 
struggle  against,  borne  up  every  night  by  the  poisonous 
vapours  of  the  marsh,  which  renders  Ostia  almost  uninhabit- 
able even  to  the  natives  in  summer,  and  death  to  the 
stranger  who  attempts  to  pass  the  night  there. 


Approach  to  Castel  Fusano. 

A  bridge,  decorated  with  the  arms  of  the  Chigis,  takes  us 
across  the  last  arm  of  the  Stagno,  with  a  huge  avenue  of 
pines  ending  on  a  green  lawn,  in  the  midst  of  which  stands 
the  mysterious,  desolate  Chigi  palace,  occupying  the  site  of 
the  beloved  Laurentine  villa  of  Pliny.     No  road,  no  path 


48  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

even,  leads  to  its  portal ;  but  all  around  is  green  turf,  and  it 
looks  like  the  house  where  the  enchanted  princess  went  to 
sleep  with  all  her  attendants  for  five  hundred  years,  and 
where  she  must  be  asleep  still.  Round  the  house,  at  in- 
tervals, stand  gigantic  red  vases,  like  Morgiana's  oil-jars, 
filled  with  yuccas  and  aloes.  Over  the  parapet  wall  stone 
figures  look  down,  set  there  to  scare  away  the  Saracens,  it  is 
said,  but  for  centuries  they  have  seen  nothing  but  a  few 
stranger  tourists  or  sportsmen,  and  the  wains  of  beautiful 
meek-eyed  oxen  drawing  timber  from  the  forest.  All  beyond 
is  a  vast  expanse  of  wood,  huge  pines  stretching  out  their 
immense  green  umbrellas  over  the  lower  trees ;  stupendous 
ilexes  contorted  by  time  into  a  thousand  strange  vagaries  ; 
bay-trees  bowed  with  age,  and  cork-trees  grey  with  lichen — 
patriarchs  even  in  this  patriarchal  forest.  And  beneath  these 
greater  potentates  such  a  wealth  of  beautiful  shrubs  as  is 
almost  indescribable — arbutus,  lentisc,  phillyrea;  tall  Medi- 
terranean heath,  waving  vast  plumes  of  white  blossom  far 
overhead,  sweet  daphne,  scenting  all  around  with  its  pale 
pink  blossoms ;  myrtle  growing  in  thickets  of  its  own ; 
smilax  and  honeysuckle,  leaping  from  tree  to  tree,  and 
forming  themselves  into  a  thousand  lovely  wreaths,  and, 
beneath  all,  such  a  carpet  of  pink  cyclamen,  that  the  air  is 
heavy  with  its  perfume,  and  we  may  sit  down  and  fill  our 
hands  and  baskets  with  the  flowers  without  moving  from  a 
single  spot.  A  road,  a  mile  long,  paved  with  blocks  of  lava 
plundered  from  the  Via  Severiana,  leads  from  the  back  of 
the  palace  to  the  sea,  and  we  must  follow  it,  partly  to  see 
the  famous  rosemary  which  Pliny  describes,  and  which  still 
grows  close  to  the  shore  in  such  abundance,  and  partly  for 
the  sake  of  a  glimpse  of  the  grand  Mediterranean  itself  (so 


SHORE  OF  CASTEL  FUSANO.  49 

refreshing  after  the  close  air  of  Roman  streets),  which  rolls  in 
here  with  long  waves  upon  a  heavy  sandy  shore,  where  a 
few  fishermen  have  their  huts,  built  of  myrtle  from  the  wood, 
and  bound  together  with  the  reeds  of  the  Stagno.  But  all 
the  forest  is  delightful,  and  one  cannot  wander  enough  into 
its  deep  recesses,  where  some  giant  of  the  wood  is  reflected 
in  a  solitary  pool,  or  where  the  trees  reach  overhead  into 
long  aisles  like  a  vast  cathedral  of  Nature.  If  time  can  be 
given,  it  is  well  worth  while  to  follow  on  horseback  the 
heavy  road  which  leads  continuously  through  the  forest  to 
Porto  d'Anzio,  by  Ardea  and  Pratica  ;  but  in  this  case  it  will 
be  necessary  to  have  permission  to  sleep  at  Castel  Fusano. 
Such  an  excursion  will  give  leisure  to  dwell  upon  the 
beauties  which  are  generally  seen  so  hurriedly.  Virgil 
should  be  taken  as  a  companion,  who  describes  the  very 
pines,  which  cast  such  long  shadows,  in  his  "  ^neid," — 

**  Evertunt  actas  ad  sidera  pinus,"  * 
and  with  the  poet  as  a  fellow-traveller,  perhaps  the  very 
desertion  and  solitude  will  act  as  a  charm,  and  the  intense 
silence,  only  broken  by  the  songs  of  the  birds  and  the  chirp 
of  the  cicala. 

•  xi.  136. 


VOL.  r. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ALBANO  AND  LARICCIA. 

(The  Hotel  de  Paris  (occupying  an  old  palace)  at  Albano,  is  perhaps 
the  best,  and  is  comfortable.  The  Albergo  della  Posta,  belonging  to 
the  same  landlord,  is  an  old-established  inn  in  the  Italian  style,  and  has 
a  few  pleasant  rooms  towards  the  Campagna.  The  Hotel  de  Rome,  on 
the  other  side  of  the  street,  nearer  Lariccia  and  the  country,  is  comfort- 
able and  well-furnished  :  the  upper  floor  is  very  cold  in  winter.  The 
Hotel  de  Russie,  near  the  Roman  gate  and  the  Villa  Doria,  is  an  old- 
fashioned  inn,  with  less  pretensions.  At  all  the  hotels  at  Albano  the 
charges  are  very  high  in  comparison  with  other  places  near  Rome,  and 
quite  unreasonably  so.  It  is  necessary  on  arriving  to  make  a  fixed  bar- 
gain at  all  of  them,  and  for  everything.  The  charges  for  carriages 
are  most  extortionate  and  ought  to  be  universally  resisted.  If  no 
bargain  is  made  at  the  railway-station,  travellers  are  liable  to  a  charge 
of  lO  or  even  15  francs  for  a  carriage  to  take  them  to  their  hotel.  Places 
in  the  open  omnibus,  without  luggage,  cost  one  franc  each.  It  is  far  more 
economical  as  well  as  pleasanter  for  a  party  of  people  to  take  a  carriage 
from  Rome  to  Albano  (costing  20  francs),  than  to  go  by  the  railway  and 
be  at  the  mercy  of  the  Albano  carriages  on  arriving.  Those  who  stay 
long  in  the  place  will  find  it  much  less  expensive  to  walk  across  the  via- 
duct to  Lariccia  and  take  a  carriage  from  thence,  or  even  to  order  one 
from  Genzano.  Donkeys  cost  four  francs  by  the  day,  the  donkeyman 
four  francs,  and  the  guide  seven  francs  :  these  prices  include  the  whole 
excursion  by  Monte  Cavo  and  Nemi.) 

LOOKING  across  the  level  reaches  of  the  Campagna  as 
it  is  seen  above  the  walls  of  the  city  from  the  Porta 
Maggiore  to  the  Porta  S.  Paolo,  the  horizon  is  bounded  by  a 
chain  of  hills,  or  rather  very  low  mountains,  so  varied  in  out- 


THE  ALB  AN  HILLS.  51 

line,  so  soft  and  beautiful  in  the  tender  hues  of  their  ever- 
changing  colour,  that  the  eye  is  always  returning  to  rest  upon 
them,  and  they  soon  assume  the  aspect  of  loved  and  familiar 
friends,  equally  charming  in  the  sapphire  and  amethyst  hues 
of  autumn,  under  the  occasional  snow-mantle  of  mid-winter, 
or  when  bursting  afresh  into  ligh^  and  life,  from  the  luxuriant 
green  of  early  spring.  Where  they  break  away  from  the  plain, 
the  buttresses  of  the  hills  are  clothed  with  woods  of  olives  or 
with  fruit-trees,  then  great  purple  hollows  vary  their  slopes, 
and  towns  and  villages  on  the  projecting  heights  gleam  and 
ghtter  in  the  sun,  towns,  each  with  a  name  so  historical  as 
to  awaken  a  thousand  associations.  And  these  centre  most 
of  all  round  the  white  building  on  the  highest  and  steepest 
crest  of  the  chain,  which  marks  the  summit  of  the  Alban 
Mount,  and  the  site  of  the  great  temple  of  Jupiter  Latiaris 
— the  famous — the  beloved  sanctuary  of  the  Latin  tribes. 

"For  those  who  have  not  been  at  Rome  I  will  say,  that  on  looking 
south-east  from  the  gate  of  S.  John  Lateran,  after  a  slightly  undulating 
plain  of  eleven  miles,  unbroken  by  any  tree,  but  only  by  tombs  and 
broken  aqueducts,  there  rises  in  the  mist  of  beautiful  days,  a  line  of  blue 
hills  of  noble  forms,  which,  leaving  the  Sabine  country,  go  leaping  on  in 
various  and  graceful  shapes,  till  they  reach  the  highest  point  of  all, 
called  the  Monte  Cavo.  Hence  the  chain  descends  afresh,  and  with 
moderate  declension,  and  a  line  long  drawn  out,  reaches  the  plain,  and 
is  lost  there  not  very  far  from  the  sea." — Massitno  d'' Azeglio. 

"Alba,  thou  findest  me  still,  and,  Alba,  thou  findest  me  ever, 
Now  from  the  Capitol  steps,  now  over  Titus's  Arch, 
Here  from  the  large  grassy  spaces  that  spread  from  the  Lateran  portal, 

lowering  o'er  aqueduct  lines  lost  in  perspective  between. 
Or  from  a  Vatican  window,  or  bridge,  or  the  high  Coliseu.ni, 

Clear  by  the  garlanded  line  cut  of  the  Flavian  ring. 
Beautiful  can  I  not  call  thee,  and  yet  thou  hast  power  to  o'ermaster, 
Power  of  mere  beauty  ;  in  dreams.  Alba,  thou  hauntest  me  still." 

A.  H.  C lough. 

Pedestrians  will  do  well  to  take  tne  old  Appian  Way  in 


52 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


going  to  Albano  (see  Walks  in  Rome,  vol.  i.),  every  step  of 
which  is  full  of  interest ;  but  carriages  will  usually  follow  the 
Via  Appia  Nuova,  which  emerges  from  the  city  walls  by  the 
Porta  S.  Giovanni,  and  after  crossing  the  Via  Latina  (  Walks 
in  Rome,  i.  124),  runs  between  the  stately  arches  of  the 
Claudian  Aqueduct  on  the  left,  and  the  ruined  tombs  of  the 
Appian  Way  on  the  right. 


Claudian  Aqueduct. 

'*  L'aqueduc  et  la  voied'Appius  marquent  un  moment  d'une  grande 
importance  dans  la  destinee  de  Rome,  ils  sont  comme  une  magnifique 
vignette  entre  le  premier  alinea  de  I'histoire  de  la  republique  et  les 
suivants." — Ampere,  Hist.  Rom.,  iv.  49. 

"Passing  out  by  the  San  Giovanni  gate,  you  enter  upon  those 
broad  wastes  that  lie  to  the  south-east  of  the  city.  Going  forward 
thence,  with  the  aqueducts  to  your  left,  and  the  old  Appian  Way,  lined 
with  crumbling  sepulchres,  reaching  for  miles  in  one  unswerving  line  on 
your  far  right,  you  soon  leave  Rome  behind.  Faint  patches  of  vegeta- 
tion gleam  here  and  there,  like  streaks  of  light ;  and  nameless  ruins  lie 
scattered  broadcast  over  the  bleak  slopes  of  this  most  desolate  region. 
Sometimes  you  come  upon  a  primitive  bullock-waggon,  or  a  peasant 
driving  an  ass  laden  with  green  boughs  ;  but  these  signs  of  life  are  rare. 
Presently  you  pass  the  remains  of  a  square  temple,  with  Corinthian 
pilasters — then  a  drove  of  shaggy  ponies — then  a  little  truck  with  a 
tiny  pent -house  reared  on  one  side  of  the  seat,  to  keep  the  driver  from 
the  sun — then  a  flock  of  rusty  sheep — a  stagnant  pool — a  clump  of 
stunted  trees — a  conical  thatched  hut — a  round  sepulchre,  half  buried  in 
the  soil  of  ages — a  fragment  of  broken  arch  ;  and  so  on,  for  miles  and 
miles  across  the  barren  plain.  By  and  by  you  seJte  drove  of  buffaloes 
scouring  along  towards  the  aqueducts,  followed  by  a  mounted  herds- 
man, buskined  and  brown,  with  his  lance  in  his  hand,  his  blue  cloak 


LE  FRA  TTOCCHIE.  53 

floating  behind  him,  and  his  sombrero  down  upon  his  brow — the  very 
picture  of  a  Mexican  hunter." — Miss  Edwards,  Barbara! s  History. 

Eleven  miles  from  Rome  the  Via  Appia  Nova  joins  the 
Via  Appia  Vecchia  at  Le  Frattocchie.  The  view  from  hence, 
looking  down  the  avenue  of  mouldering  sepulchres,  is 
most  desolate  and  striking.  The  use  of  the  popular  term 
Strada  del  Diavolo,  which  we  constantly  meet  with  here  as 
applied  to  the  Via  Appia,  will  call  to  mind  the  name  of  the 
Devil's  Dyke  as  applied  to  a  well-known  Roman  work  in 
England. 

•'  One  day  we  walked  out,  a  little  party  of  three,  to  Albano,  fourteen 
miles  distant ;  possessed  by  a  great  desire  to  go  there  by  the  ancient 
Appian  Way,  long  since  ruined  and  overgrown.  We  started  at  half- 
past  seven  in  the  morning,  and  within  an  hour  or  so  were  out  upon  the 
open  Campagna.  For  twelve  miles  we  went  climbing  on,  over  an 
unbroken  succession  of  mounds,  and  heaps,  and  hills,  of  ruin.  Tombs 
and  temples,  overthrown  and  prostrate  ;  small  fragments  of  columns, 
friezes,  pediments  ;  great  blocks  of  granite  and  marble ;  mouldering 
arches,  grass-grown  and  decayed  ;  ruin  enough  to  build  a  spacious  city 
from,  lay  strewn  about  us.  Sometimes  loose  walls,  built  up  from  these 
fragments  by  the  shepherds,  came  across  our  path  ;  sometimes  a  ditch, 
between  two  mounds  of  broken  stones,  obstructed  our  progress  ;  some- 
times the  fragments  themselves,  rolling  from  beneath  our  feet,  made  it  a 
toilsome  matter  to  advance  ;  but  it  was  always  ruin.  Now,  we  tracked 
a  piece  of  the  old  road  above  the  ground  ;  now  traced  it  underneath  a 
grassy  covering,  as  if  that  were  its  grave  ;  but  all  the  way  was  ruin.  In 
the  distance,  ruined  aqueducts  went  stalking  on  their  giant  course  along 
the  plain  ;  and  every  breath  of  wind  that  swept  towards  us  stirred  early 
flowers  and  grasses,  springing  up,  spontaneously,  on  miles  of  ruin.  The 
unseen  larks  above  us,  who  alone  disturbed  the  awful  silence,  had  their 
nests  in  ruin ;  and  the  fierce  herdsmen,  clad  in  sheepskins,  who  now 
and  then  scowled  upon  us  from  their  sleeping  nooks,  were  housed  in 
ruin.  The  aspect  of  the  desolate  Campagna  in  one  direction,  where  it  was 
most  level,  reminded  me  of  an  American  prairie  ;  but  what  is  the  solitude 
of  a  region  where  men  have  never  dwelt,  to  that  of  a  Desert  where  a. 
mighty  race  have  left  their  foot-prints  in  the  earth  from  which  they  have 
vanished  ;  where  the  resting-places  of  their  Dead  have  fallen  like  their 
Dead ;  and  the  broken  hour-glass  of  Time  is  but  a  heap  of  idle  dust  I 


54  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Returning,  by  the  road,  at  sunset  j  and  looking,  from  the  distance,  on 
the  course  we  had  taken  in  the  morning,  I  almost  felt  as  if  the  sun  would 
never  rise  again,  but  look  its  last,  that  night,  upon  a  ruined  world." — 
Dickens. 

Le  Frattocchie  itself  was  the  scene  of  the  fatal  meeting 
(Jan.  2oth,  B.C.  52)  between  Clodius  and  Milo. 

"  Clodius  etait  alle  a  Aricia  pour  une  affaire.  Lelendemain,  il  s'etait 
arrete  dans  sa  villa,  voisine  du  mont  Albain,  ou  il  devait  coucher.  La 
nouvelle  de  la  mort  de  son  architecte  le  fit  partir  assez  tard.  A  peine 
avait-il  commence  a  suivre  la  voie  Appienne,  qu'il  se  croisa  pres  de 
Boville  avec  Milon  ;  Milon  se  rendait  a  Lanuvium,  d'ou  il  etait  ori- 
ginaire,  pour  y  installer  dans  sa  charge  un  pretre  de  la  deesse  du  lieu, 
Junon  Sospita. 

"  Je  crois  que  les  deux  ennemis  ne  s'attendaient  pas  a  se  rencontrer. 
Milon  etait  en  voiture  avec  sa  femme ;  escorte  par  ses  esclaves,  parmi 
lesquels  se  trouvaient  deux  gladiateurs  renommes.  Dans  la  situation  oil 
il  se  trouvait  vis-a-vis  de  Clodius,  cette  escorte  n'avait  rien  d' extra- 
ordinaire. 

"  Clodius  etait  a  cheval,  suivi  de  trois  amis,  et  d'une  trentaine 
d' esclaves.  Les  deux  ennemis  s'etaient  depasses  sans  se  rien  dire.  Une 
querelle  s'engagea  entre  ceux  qui  formaient  leur  suite. 

"Selon  Ciceron,  un  grand  nombre  des  gens  de  Clodius  attaquerent 
Milon  d'un  lieu  qui  dominait  la  route.  Son  cocher  fut  tue.  Milon 
sauta  a  terre  pour  se  defendr^;  les  gens  de  Clodius  coururent  vers  la 
voiture  pour  attaquer  Milon,  et  commencerent  a  frapper  ses  esclaves  a 
coups  d'epee.  Ce  fut  alors  que  le  gladiateur  Birra,  attaquant  Clodius 
par  derriere,  lui  per9a  I'epaule. 

"  Les  serviteurs  de  Clodius,  beaucoup  moins  nombreux,  s'enfuirent  et 
emporterent  leur  maitre  dans  une  hotellerie  ;  I'hotellerie  fut  assiegee  par 
les  hommes  de  Milon,  I'hdte  tue.  Clodius,  arrache  de  cet  asile,  fut 
ramene  sur  la  route,  et  la  perce  de  coups.  Milon  ne  fit  rien  pour 
I'empecher.  On  dit  plus  tard  qu'apres  le  meurtre  il  etait  alle  dans  la 
villa  de  son  ennemi,  qui  etait  tout  proche,  pour  chercher  son  enfant  et 
I'egorger  ;  que,  ne  le  trouvant  pas,  il  avait  torture  ses  esclaves  ;  mais  ces 
accusations  n'ont  aucune  vraisemblance. 

"La  suite  de  Clodius  s'etait  dispersee.  Un  senateur  qui  passait  par 
la  trouva  son  corps  gisant  sur  la  route  et  le  fit  reporter  dans  sa  maison 
du  Palatin." — Ampere,  Hist.  Rom.,  iv.  577. 

Some  ruins  at  a  short  distance  to  the  left  are  supposed  tc 


BOVILL^.  55 

mark  the  site  of  the  city  of  Appiola,  destroyed  by  Tarquin, 

who  used  its  spoil  to  erect  the  Circus  Maximus. 

A  Httle  to  the   right   are   the   ruins   of  Bovillce,   whose 

foundation  is  attributed  to  Latinus  Silvius  of  Alba.     The 

remains  consist  of  insignificant  fragments  of  the  circus  and 

theatre.    Bovillae  was  the  first  station  on  the  Appian  Way  : — 

**Et  cum  currere  debeas  Bovillas, 
Interjungere  quseris  ad  Camoenas." 

Martial,  ii.,  Ep.  6. 

The  title  of  Suburbange  distinguished  it  from  another  town 

of  the  same  name  : — 

**  Orta  suburbanis  qusedam  fuit  Anna  Bovillis, 
Pauper,  sed  multse  sedu'litatis,  anus." 

Ovid.  Fast.  iii.  667. 

**  Quidve  suburbanse  parva  minus  urbe  Bovillae." 

PfopertiuSy  iv.,  Eleg.  i. 

Florus  speaks  of  Bovillae  as  one  of  the  first  towns  subdued 
by  the  Romans  :  Plutarch  tells  how  it  was  taken  and  plun- 
dered by  Marcus  Coriolanus.  In  the  time  of  Cicero,  who 
speaks  of  it  as  a  "  municipium,"  it  was  already  almost 
deserted.*  The  Julian  Gens  had  a  chapel  here,  where  their 
images  were  preserved,  and  games  were  performed  in  their 
honour.  Here  the  body  of  the  Emperor  Augustus  rested 
for  a  month  as  it  was  being  brought  from  Nola,  and  here 
the  knights  assembled  to  conduct  it  to  the  city.  The 
position  of  Bovillae  receives  an  additional  identification  from 
the  description  which  Cicero  gives  of  the  circumstances 
which  led  to  the  murder  of  Clodius,  when  he  speaks  of  it 
as  "  Pugna  Bovillana."t 

Beyond  Le  Frattocchie  the  Via  Appia  ascends  con- 
tinuously. 

*  Orat.  pro  Plancio.  t  Ad  Atticum.  v.  15. 


$6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

* '  Now  the  Campagna  is  left  behind,  and  Albano  stands  straight 
before  you,  on  the  summit  of  a  steep  and  weary  hill.  Low  lines  of 
white-washed  wall  border  the  road  on  either  side,  enclosing  fields  of 
fascine^  orchards,  olive-yards,  and  gloomy  plantations  of  cypresses  and 
pines.  Next  come  a  range  of  sand-banks,  with  cavernous  hollows  and 
deep  under-shadows ;  next,  an  old  cinque-cento  gateway,  crumbling 
away  by  the  road-side ;  then  a  little  wooden  cross  on  an  overhanging 
crag ;  then  the  sepulchre  of  Pompey  ;  and  then  the  gates  of  Albano, 
through  which  you  rattle  into  the  town,  and  up  to  the  entrance  of  the 
Hotel  de  Russie." — Miss  Edwards^  Barbara's  History. 

Immediately  before  entering  the  town,  we  pass,  on  the 
left,  a  lofty  tomb,  always  known  as  the  Tomb  of  Pompey. 
Plutarch  mentions  his  sepulchre  as  being  near  his  villa  at 
Albanum,  though  according  to  the  epigram  of  Varro 
Atacinus,  quoted  by  the  scholiast  on  Persius  ii.  36, 
Pompey  had  no  tomb  : — 

"  Marmoreo  Licinus  tumulo  jacet ;  at  Cato  parvo ; 
Pompeius  nullo  ;  quis  putet  esse  Deus." 

To  those  who  receive  their  previous  impressions  of  Albano 
from  water-colour  drawings  and  from  the  engravings  of 
Pinelli,  the  sight  of  the  place  will  be  full  of  disappointment. 
The  town  consists,  for  the  most  part,  of  an  ill-paved  street  a 
mile  in  length,  of  shabby  white-washed  houses,  without  fea- 
ture, and  the  inhabitants  have  little  beauty  and  wear  no  dis- 
tinctive costume.  All  the  interest  of  the  place  is  to  be  found 
in  the  lovely  scenery  which  surrounds  it,  and  most  lovely  it  is ; 
and  for  costumes  and  primitive  habits  of  the  peasantry  we 
must  penetrate  further,  to  the  Volscian  and  Hernican  hills. 
Yet,  except  in  the  building  of  a  few  better-class  hotels, 
Albano  has  made  no  progress  in  late  years,  and  is  ill-pro- 
vided with  all  the  comforts  of  civilized  life :  the  few  there 
are  being  supplied  to  strangers  at  prices  which  are  enormous 
for  Italy. 


LIFE  A  T  ALBANO.  57 

*'  Albano — a  place  of  more  than  6000  souls,  the  episcopal  see  of  a 
Cardinal  who  represented  his  sovereign  in  the  spiritual  government  01 
Rome — has  not  a  bookseller's  shop,  no  sort  of  library  for  public  use,  no 
journal  except  sterile  official  papers,  though  a  large  Cathedral  Chapter, 
seminary,  and  public  schools,  the  residence  of  a  Gonfaloniere  and  a 
governor,  attest  the  importance — numerous  hotels  and  rather  gay  caffes, 
announce  the  fashionable — reputation  of  this  town.  Under  the  old 
government,  twelve  convents,  in  Albano  and  its  vicinity,  dispensed 
charities,  usually  in  the  form  of  soup  and  bread,  to  all  applicants,  either 
daily  or  on  stated  days.  Yet  the  town  itself  ha>  always  been  swarming 
with  beggars,  who  usually  appeal  to  compassion  with  promises  of  so 
many  Aves  in  return  !  The  native  youth  of  the  place,  seeming  for  the 
most  part  artizans  or  labourers  in  tolerably  good  condition,  spend  their 
evenings  generally,  as  the  visitor  may  perceive,  at  the  caffes  playing 
cards." — Hemans'  Catholic  Italy. 

But  the  beauty  of  the  villas,  and  the  variety  of  excursions 
in  the  neighbourhood,  make  Albano  the  most  enchanting  of 
summer  residences  for  those  who  can  bear  the  heat  of 
Italian  villeggiature.  Large  airy  apartments  may  be  obtained 
in  many  of  the  old  palaces,  where,  in  the  great  heat,  the 
scarcity  of  furniture  is  scarcely  a  disadvantage.  But  those 
who  sojourn  here,  will  do  well  to  conform  to  Itahan  habits — 
to  dine  early  and  then  take  a  siesta,  followed  by  the 
delicious  Italian  refection  of  lemonade,  fruits,  &c.,  which  is 
known  as  Merenda,  and  sallying  out  in  the  gorgeous  beauty 
of  the  evening  to  walk  or  drive  in  the  "  galleries "  which 
overhang  the  lake,  or  in  the  woods  towards  Nemi. 

"  Ah,  dearest,  you  know  not  yet  the  enchantment  of  a  summer  amid 
Italian  hills,  and  you  know  not  what  it  is  to  breathe  the  perfume  of  the 
orange  gardens— to  lie  at  noon  in  the  deep  shadow  of  an  ilex  grove, 
listening  to  the  ripple  of  a  legendary  spring,  older  than  history — to  stroll 
among  ruins  in  the  purple  twilight !  Then  up  here  at  Albano,  far 
from  the  sultry  city  and  the  unhealthy  plain,  we  have  such  sunrises  and 
sunsets  as  you,  artist  though  you  be,  have  never  dreamt  of— here,  where 
the  cool  airs  linger  longest,  and  the  very  moon  and  stars  look  more 
golden  than  elsewhere." — Barbaras  History. 

"When  the  sun  draws  down  to  the  horizon  the  people  flock  forth 


58  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

from  their  houses.  All  the  chairs  and  benches  in  front  of  the  caffe  are 
filled — the  streets  are  thronged  with  companies  of  promenaders — every 
door-step  has  its  little  group — the  dead  town  has  become  alive.  March- 
ing through  the  long  green  corridors  of  the  "gallerie"  that  lead  for 
miles  from  Albano  or  Castel  Gandolfo  to  Genzano,  whole  families  may 
be  seen  loitering  together,  and  pausing  now  and  then  to  look  through 
the  trunks  of  the  great  trees  at  the  purple  flush  that  deepens  every 
moment  over  the  Campagna.  The  cicale  now  renew  their  song  as  the 
sun  sets,  and  croak  dryly  in  the  trees  their  good-night.  The  contadini 
come  in  from  the  vineyards  and  olive-orchards,  bearing  ozier-baskets 
heaped  with  grapes,  or  great  bundles  of  brush-wood  on  their  heads. 
There  is  a  crowd  around  the  fountain,  where  women  are  filling  their 
great  copper  vases  with  water,  and  pausing  to  chat  before  they  march 
evenly  home  under  its  weight  like  stout  caryatides.  Broad-horned  white 
oxen  drag  home  their  creaking  wains.  In  the  distance  you  hear  the 
long  monotonous  wail  of  the  peasant's  song  as  he  returns  from  his  work, 
interrupted  now  and  then  with  a  shrill  scream  to  his  cattle.  White- 
haired  goats  come  up  the  lanes  in  flocks,  cropping  as  they  go  the  over- 
hanging bushes— and  mounting  up  the  bank  to  pluck  at  the  flowers  and 
leaves,  they  stare  at  you  with  yellow  glassy  eyes,  and  wag  their  beards. 
The  sheep  are  huddled  into  their  netted  folds.  Down  the  slopes  of  the 
pavement  jar  along  ringing  files  of  wine-carts  going  towards  Rome, 
while  the  little  Pomeranian  dog  who  lives  under  the  triangular  hood  in 
front  is  running  about  on  the  piled  wine-casks,  and  uttering  volleys  of 
little  sharp  yelps  and  barks  as  the  cars  rattle  through  the  streets.  If  you 
watch  the  wine-carriers  down  into  the  valley  you  will  see  them  pull  up 
at  the  wayside  fountains,  draw  a  good  flask  of  red  wine  from  one  of  the 
casks,  and  then  replace  it  with  good  fresh  water. 

"The^r//Z?'now  begin  to  trill  in  the  grass,  and  the  hedges  are  alive  with 
fire-flies.  From  the  ilex  groves  and  the  gardens  nightingales  sing  until 
the  middle  of  July  ;  and  all  summer  long  glow-worms  show  their  green 
emerald  splendour  on  the  grey  walls,  and  from  under  the  road-side  vines. 
In  the  distance  you  hear  the  laugh  of  girls,  the  song  of  wandering  pro- 
menaders, and  the  burr  of  distant  tambourines,  where  they  are  dancing 
the  saltarello.  The  civetta  hoots  from  the  old  tombs,  the  barbigiano 
answers  from  the  crumbling  ruins,  and  the  plaintive,  monotonous  ciou 
owls  call  to  each  other  across  the  vales.  The  moonlight  lies  in  great 
still  sheets  of  splendour  in  the  piazza,  and  the  shadows  of  the  houses  are 
cut  sharply  out  in  it,  like  blocks  of  black  marble.  The  polished  leaves 
of  the  laurel  twinkle  in  its  beams  and  rustle  as  the  wind  sifts  through 
them.  Above,  the  sky  is  soft  and  tender ;  great,  near,  palpitant  stars 
flash  on  you  their  changeful  splendour  of  emerald,  topaz,  and  ruby. 


rOMB  OF  A  RUNS.  59 

The  Milky  Way  streams  like  a  torn  veil  over  the  heavens.  The  villa 
fronts  whiten  in  the  moonlight  among  the  grey  smoke-like  olives  that 
crowd  the  slopes.  Vines  wave  from  the  old  towers  and  walls,  and 
from  their  shadow  comes  a  song  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  guitar — it  is 
a  tenor  voice,  singing  'Non  ti  scordar,  non  ti  scordar  di  me.' 

•'Nothing  can  be  more  exquisite  than  these  summer  nights  in  Italy. 
The  sky  itself,  so  vast,  tender,  and  delicate,  is  like  no  other  sky.  As 
you  stand  on  one  of  the  old  balconies  or  walls  along  the  terraces  of  the 
Frescati  villas,  looking  down  over  the  mysterious  Campagna,  and 
listening  to  the  continuous  splash  of  fountains  and  the  song  of  nightin- 
gales, you  feel  Italy — the  Italy  of  Romeo  and  Juliet.  Everything  seems 
enchanted  in  the  tender  splendour.  The  stars  themselves  bum  with  a 
softer,  more  throbbing  and  impulsive  light.  The  waves  of  the  cool, 
delicate  air,  passing  over  orange  and  myrtle  groves,  and  breathing 
delicately  against  the  brow  and  cheeks,  seem  to  blow  open  the  inmost 
leaves  of  the  book  on  which  youth  painted  its  visionary  pictures  with 
the  colours  of  dreams.  In  a  word,  we  say  this  is  Italy — the  Italy  we 
dreamed  of— not  the  Italy  of  fleas,  couriers,  mendicants,  and  postilions, 
but  of  romance,  poetry,  and  passion." — Story's  Roba  di  Roma,  i.  298. 

As  soon  as  the  visitor  is  settled  in  his  hotel  he  will  probably 
wander  up  to  tlie  end  of  the  street,  where  he  will  at  once 
find  himself  amid  the  greatest  attractions  of  the  place.  Just 
below  the  road,  upon  the  right,  is  the  tomb  of  Aruns,  son  of 
Porsenna.  It  is  a  huge  square  base  with  four  cones  rising 
from  it,  and  a  central  chamber,  in  which  an  urn  with  ashes 
was  discovered  some  years  ago.  Aruns  was  killed  by  Aris- 
todemus  of  Cumae  before  Ariccia,  which  his  father  had 
sent  him  to  besiege  :  his  tomb  is  identified  by  the  description 
which  Pliny  gives  of  that  of  Porsenna,  but  it  was  long  sup- 
posed to  be  the  monument  of  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii. 

Below  the  tomb  of  Aruns,  the  old  road  to  Ariccia  winds 
through  the  hollow,  amid  rocks  and  trees,  which,  alas,  have 
lately  been  pollarded.  Still  the  glen  must  always  be  full  of 
beauty,  and  is  the  constant  summer  resort  of  landscape- 
painters. 


6o 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


"From  Albano  we  had  to  go  on  foot  for  the  short  and  beautiful  re- 
mainder of  the  way  through  Ariccia.  Reseda  and  golden  cistus  grew 
wild  by  the  road-side  ;  the  thick,  juicy  olive-trees  cast  a  delicious  shade. 
I  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  distant  sea  ;  and  upon  the  mountain-slopes  by 
the  wayside,  where  a  cross  stood,  merry  girls  skipped  dancing  past  us, 
yet  never  forgetting  piously  to  kiss  the  holy  cross.  The  lofty  dome  of 
the  church  of  Ariccia  I  imagined  to  be  that  of  S.  Peter,  which  the  angels 
had  hung  up  in  the  blue  air  among  the  dark  olive-trees." — Impravisatore. 
H.  C.  Andersen. 


L'Ariccia. 

The  ravine  is  now  called  Vallericcia,  and  was  once  a  sheet 
of  water  called  Lacus  Aricinus.  Near  the  road  are  some 
small  remains  supposed  to  be  those  of  a  temple  of  Diana. 

"  The  ceremonies  of  the  temple  of  Aricia  were,  according  to  Strabo, 
barbaric  and  Scythian,  like  those  of  the  Tauric  Diana.  The  priest  (Rex 
Nemorensis)  was  always  a  fugitive  who  had  slain  his  predecessor,  and 
always  had  in  his  hand  a  drawn  sword,  to  defend  himself  from  a  similar 
fate.  There  was  a  tree  near  the  temple,  whence  if  a  fugitive  could  ap- 
proach and  carry  off  a  bough,  he  was  entitled  to  the  duel,  or  mono- 
machia,  with  the  Rex  Nemorensis. 

"  A  most  curious  basso-relievo  was  found  in  the  neighbourhood  some 
years  ago,  *  representing  several  personages,  among  whom  is  the  priest, 
lately  in  possession,  lying  prostrate,  with  his  entrails  issuing  from  a 

•  Now  at  Palma  in  Majorca. 


ARJCCIA  6i 

wound,  inflicted  by  his  successor,  who  stands  over  him  with  his  sword  ; 
there  are  also  several  females  in  long  robes,  in  the  Etruscan  style,  who 
seem  to  invoke  the  gods.  This  basso-relievo  and  the  passage  of  Strabo 
seem  to  explain  each  other." — Sir  W.  Gell. 

Hippolytus  or  Urbius,  the  legendary  founder  of  Ariccia, 
was  joined  with  Diana  in  the  worship  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  is  commemorated  with  her  by  many  of  the  Latin  poets. 

*' Jamque  dies  aderat ;  profugis  cum  regibus  altum 
Fumat  Aricinum  Triviae  Nemus,  et  face  multa 
Conscius  Hippolyti  splendet  lacus." 

Stat.  Silv.  iii.  I. 
'*  Ecce  suburbans  templum  nemorale  Dianae, 
Partaque  per  gladios  regna  nocente  manu." 

Ovid.  Art.  Am.  i.  259. 
•*  Nympha,  mone,  Nemori  stagnoque  operata  Dianse  ; 
Nympha,  Numae  conjux,  ad  tua  festa  veni. 
Vallis  Aricinae  sylva  praecinctus  opaca 

Est  lacus,  antiqua  religione  sacer. 
Hie  jacet  Hippolytus  furiis  direptus  equorum,"  &c. 

Ovid.  Fast,  iii,  261. 
*'  Lucus  eum,  nemorisque  tui  Dictynna  recessus 
Celat :  Aricino  Virbius  ille  lacu  est." 

Ovid.  Fast.  vi.  755. 
**  ....  nam  conjux  urbe  relicta 

Va^is  Aricinae  densis  latet  abdita  sylvis : 
oacraque  Oresteae  gemitu  questuque  Dianae 
Impedit.     Ah  quoties  Nymphae  nemorisque  lacasque, 
Ne  faceret,  monuere." 

Ovid.  Metam.  xv.  487. 
**  Ibat  et  Hippolyti  proles  pulcherrima  bello, 
Virbius  ;  insignem  quem  mater  Aricia  misit, 
Eductum  Egeriae  lucis,  humentia  circum 
Littora,  pinguis  ubi  et  placabilis  ara  Dianae." 

Virgil.  y£«.  vii.  76 1. 
•*  At  Trivia  Hippolytum  secretis  alma  recondit 
Se<libus,  et  nymphae  Egeriae  nemorique  relegat ; 
Solus  ubi  in  silvis  Italis  ignobilis  aevum 
Exigeret,  versoqueubi  nomine  Virbius  esset." 

Virgil.  Ain.  vii.  774. 


62  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

**  Jam  nemus  Egeriae,  jam  te  ciet  altus  ab  Alba 
Jupiter,  et  soli  non  mitis  Aricia  regi." 

Val.  Flac.  Arg,  ii.  304. 
*'  ....  quos  miserat  altis 

Egerise  genitos  immitis  Aricia  lucis, 
iEtatis  mentisque  pares  ;  at  non  dabat  ultra 
Clotho  dura  lacus  aramque  videre  Dianse." 

Sil.  Hal.  iv.  368. 

The  steep  ascent  from  Vallericcia  to  the  town  is  also  com- 
memorated by  the  poets. 

.   .    **accedo  Bovillas 
Clivumque  ad  Virbi  :  prsesto  est  mihi  Manlius  hseres." 

Persius.  Sat.  vi.  56. 
"  Irus  tuorum  temporum  sequebaris. 
Migrare  Clivum  crederes  Aricinum." 

Martial,  xii.  Ep.  32. 

The  steepness  of  the  hill  from  the  earliest  times  afforded 

great  advantages  to  the  beggars. 

*'  Dignus  Aricinos  qui  mendicaret  ad  axes, 
Blandaque  devexae  jactaret  basia  rhedae." 

Juvenal.  Sat.  iv.  1 17. 

The   rich   country   upon  which  we   look   down  was   as 

famous  in  ancient  as  in  modern  times  for  the  produce  of  its 

vineyards. 

"Est  mihi  nonum  superantis  annum 
Plenus  Albani  cadus." 

Horace.  Od.  iv.  ii. 
"  Hie  herus,  Albanum,  Maecenas,  sive  Falernum 
Te  magis  appositis  delectat ;  habemus  utrumque." 

Sat.  ii.  8. 
"  Hoc  de  Caesareis  mitis  vindemia  cellis 
Misit,  luleo  quae  sibi  monte  placet." 

Martial,  xiii.  106. 

Aricia  was  also  celebrated  for  its  leeks  : — 

"  Bruttia  quae  tellus,  et  mater  Aricia  porri." 

Colum.  R.  Rust.  x. 


THE  PALAZZO  CHIGI.  63 

**  Mittit  praecipuos  nemoralis  Aricia  porros." 

Martial.  xiiL  .16. 

Some  fragments  of  the  ancient  wall  may  be  seen  before 
entering^  the  gate  of  Aricia  with  its  forked  Guelfic  battle- 
ments. The  city  itself  is  of  very  ancient  origin,  being  first 
mentioned  in  the  story  of  Tarquinius  Superbus,  when  Turnus 
Herdonius,  its  king,  was  drowned  in  the  Aqua  Ferentina. 
It  was  the  birth  place  of  Atia,  mother  of  Augustus,  and  as 
such  is  extolled  by  Cicero  in  his  third  Philippic. 

Aricia  was  a  station  on  the  Via  Appia  : — 

*'  Nous  arrivons  avec  Horace  a  Lariccia.     La  nous  disons  comme  lui : 
'  Egressum  magna  me  excepit  Aricia  Roma ' 

{Sat.  L,  5".  i.) 

enchantes  de  ces  delicieux  aspects  dont  Horace,  moins  occupe  que  nous 
ne  le  sommes  du  pittoresque,  n'a  point  parle.  La  ville  moderne  de 
Lariccia  s'est  perchee,  comme  il  arrive  souvent,  dans  la  citadelle  de  la 
ville  ancienne.  M.  Pierre  Rosa,  cet  explorateur  infatigable  et  sagace 
de  la  campagne  romaine,  et  qui  excelle  a  decouvrir  les  ruines  que  son 
aieul  Salvator  Rosa  aimait  k  peindre,  a  cru  retrouver  les  restes  de  la 
petite  auberge  {^Sat.  i.,  S.  i.)  ou  Horace  a  loge  {hospicio  modico),  et  meme 
des  vases  contenant  I'orge  destinee  aux  montures  des  voyageurs." — 
Ampere^  Emp.  Rom.  i.  365. 

Lariccia  is  now  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  huge  Palace  of 
the  Chigi  family^  built  by  Bernini  for  Alexander  VII.  It  is 
noble  and  imposing  in  its  proportions,  as  it  rises  on  huge 
buttresses  from  the  depths  of  the  ravine.  In  the  interior  are 
some  interesting  rooms  hung  with  exceedingly  curious 
stamped  leather,  and  a  chamber  containing  portraits  of  the 
twelve  nieces  of  Alexander  VII.,  who  were  so  enchanted  at 
the  elevation  of  their  uncle,  that  they  all  took  the  veil  im- 
mediately to  please  him.  Apartments  are  let  here  in  the 
summer  months,  and  are  very  delightful. 

Opposite  the  palace  is  the  beautifully  proportioned  Church 


64  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME 

of  the  Assumption,  also  built  (1664)  by  Bernini,  with  a  dome 
painted  by  Antonio  Raggi,  and  a  few  very  indifferent  pictures. 
A  fountain  covered  with  mimulus  stands  in  front  of  the 
portico.  The  palace  and  church  form  the  beautiful  group 
of  Lariccia  so  well  known  from  pictures.  Between  them 
the  town  is  now  entered  from  Albano  by  a  grand  viaduct, 
700  feet  long,  whence  the  view  is  exquisitely  lovely,  on  the 
left  over  the  Campagna,  on  the  right  looking  into  the  depths 
of  the  immemorial  wood  known  as  the  Parco  Chigi. 

**  Le  pont  monumental  remplit  un  pro  fond  ravin  pour  mettre  de 
plain-pied  la  route  d'Aricia  a  Albano.  II  passe  done  par-dessus  tout 
un  paysage  vu  en  profondeur,  et  ce  paysage  est  rempli  par  une  foret 
vierge  jetee  dans  un  abime.  Une  foret  vierge  fermee  de  murs,  c'est  14 
une  de  ces  fantaisies  que  les  princes  peuvent  seuls  se  passer.  II  y  a 
cinquante  ans  que  la  main  de  I'homme  n'a  abattu  une  branche  et  que 
son  pied  n'a  trace  un  sentier  dans  le  foret  Chigi.  Pourquoi?  Chi 
lo  sa  ?  vous  disent  les  indigenes. 

"  Au  reste,  ce  caprice-la,  qui  serait  bien  concevable  de  la  part  d'un  pro- 
prietaire  artiste,  est  une  agreable  surprise  pour  I'artiste  qui  passe.  Sur 
les  flancs  du  ravin  s'echelonnent  les  tetes  venerables  des  vieux  chenes 
soutenant  dans  leur  robuste  branchage  les  squelettes  penches  de  leurs 
voisins  morts,  qui  tombent  en  poussiere  sous  une  mousse  dessechee 
d'un  blanc  livide.  La  lierre  court  sur  ces  mines  vegetales,  et  sous 
r impenetrable  abri  de  ces  reseaux  de  verdure  vigoureuse  et  de  pales 
ossements,  un  pele-mele  de  ronces,  d'herbes,  et  de  rochers  va  se  baigner 
dans  le  ruisseau  sans  rivages  practicables.  Si  Ton  n'etait  sur  une 
grande  route,  avec  une  ville  derriere  soi,  on  se  croirait  dans  une  foret 
du  nouveau  monde." — George  Sand,  La  Daniella. 

"It  had  been  wild  weather  when  I  left  Rome,  and  all  across  the 
Campagna  the  clouds  were  sweeping  in  sulphurous  blue,  with  a  clap  of 
thunder  or  two,  and  breaking  gleams  of  sun  along  the  Claudian  aque- 
duct, lighting  up  the  infinity  of  its  arches  like  the  bridge  of  chaos. 
But  as  I  climbed  the  long  slope  of  the  Alban  Mount,  the  storm  swept 
finally  to  the  north,  and  the  noble  outline  of  the  domes  of  Albano,  and 
graceful  darkness  of  its  ilex  grove,  rose  against  pure  streaks  of  alternate 
blue  and  amber  ;  the  upper  sky  gradually  flushing  through  the  last  frag- 
ments of  rain-cloud  in  deep,  palpitating  azure,  half  aether  and  half  dew 
The  noonday  sun  came  slanting  down  the  rocky  slopes  of  La  Riccia, 


THE  CAPPUCCINI  CONVE^/T.  65 

and  their  masses  of  entangled  and  tall  foliage,  whose  autumnal  tints 
were  mixed  with  the  wet  verdure  of  a  thousand  evergreens,  were  pene- 
trated with  it  as  with  rain.  I  cannot  call  it  colour,  it  was  conflagration. 
Purple,  and  crimson,  and  scarlet,  like  the  curtains  of  God's  tabernacle, 
the  rejoicing  trees  sank  into  the  valley  in  showers  of  light,  every  separate 
leaf  quivering  with  burning  and  buoyant  life;  each,  as  it  turned  to  re- 
flect or  transmit  the  sunbeam,  first  a  torch,  and  then  an  emerald.  Far 
up  into  the  recesses  of  the  valley,  the  green  vistas  arched  like  the 
hollows  of  mighty  waves  of  some  crystalline  sea,  with  the  arbutus  flowers 
dashed  along  their  flanks  for  foam,  and  silver  flakes  of  orange  spray 
tossed  into  the  air  around  them,  breaking  over  the  gray  walls  of  rock 
into  a  thousand  separate  stars,  fading  and  kindling  alternately  as  the 
weak  wind  lifted  and  let  them  fall.  Every  glade  of  grass  burned  like 
the  golden  floor  of  heaven,  opening  in  sudden  gleams  as  the  foliage 
broke  and  closed  above  it,  as  sheet-lightning  opens  in  a  cloud  at  sunset ; 
the  motionless  masses  of  dark  rock— dark  though  flushed  with  scarlet 
lichen — casting  their  quiet  shadows  across  its  restless  radiance,  the  foun- 
tain underneath  them  filling  its  marble  hollow  with  blue  mist  and  fitful 
sound  ;  and  over  all — the  multitudinous  bars  of  amber  and  rose,  the 
sacred  clouds  that  have  no  darkness,  and  only  exist  to  illumine,  were 
seen  in  fathomless  intervals  between  the  solemn  and  orbed  repose  of  the 
stone  pines,  passing  to  lose  themselves  in  the  last,  white,  blinding  lustre 
of  the  measureless  line  where  the  Campagna  melted  into  the  blaze  of 
the  sea." — Ruskni^s  Modern  Painters. 

The  most  delightful  lanes  fringed  with  cyclamen  and  for- 
get-me-not, lead  under  the  arch  at  the  back  of  the  Chigi 
palace  and  skirt  the  walls  of  the  wood  to  the  Convent  of  the 
Cappucani,  from  whose  lovely  ilex  groves  there  are  glorious 
views  in  every  direction.  The  convent  occupies  the  site  of 
part  of  the  villa  of  Domitian,  whither  Juvenal  describes  the 
saturnine  emperor  as  summoning  the  imperial  council  from 
Rome  in  the  winter  of  a.d.  84. 

"Anxiously  they  asked  each  other.  What  news?  What  the  purport 
of  their  unexpected  summons  ?  What  foes  of  Rome  had  broken  the 
prince's  slumbers, — the  Chatti  or  the  Sicambri,  tlie  Britons  or  the 
Dacians  ?  While  they  were  yet  waiting  for  admission,  the  menials  of 
the  palace  entered,  bearing  aloft  a  huge  turbot,  a  present  to  the  emperor, 
which  they  had  the  mortification  of  seeing  introduced  into  his  presence, 
VOL.  I.  5 


66  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

while  the  doors  were  still  shut  against  themselves.  A  humble  fisherman 
had  found  the  monster  stranded  on  the  beach,  beneath  the  fane  of  Venus 
at  Ancona,  and  had  hurried  to  receive  a  reward  for  so  rare  an  offering 
to  the  imperial  table.  When  at  last  the  councillors  were  admitted,  the 
question  reserved  for  their  deliberations  was  no  other  than  this,  whether 
the  big  fish  should  be  cut  in  pieces,  or  served  up  whole  on  some  enor- 
mous platter,  constructed  in  its  honour.  The  cabinet  was  no  doubt 
sensibly  persuaded  that  the  question  allowed  at  least  of  no  delay,  and 
with  due  expressions  of  surprise  and  admiration  voted  the  dish,  and  set 
the  potter's  wheel  in  motion." — Merivale's  Romans  under  the  Empire. 

*'  Surgitur,  et  misso  proceres  exire  jubentur 
Consilio,  quos  Albanam  dux  magnus  in  arcem 
Traxerat  attonitos  et  festinare  coactos." 

Sat.  iv.  145. 

This  palace  of  Domitian  is  frequently  alluded  to  in  the 
poets : — 

•*  Hoc  tibi  Palladiae  seu  collibus  uteris  Albse, 
Csesar,  et  hinc  Triviam  prospicis,  inde  Thetin  ; 
Mittimus." 

Martial^  v.  Ep.  i. 

**  Sed  quis  ab  excelsis  Trojanae  collibus  Albae, 
Unde  suae  juxta  prospectat  moenia  Romse, 
Proximus  ille  Deus." 

Statins^  Silv.  v.  2. 

One  of  the  best  subjects  for  a  picture  is  the  view  from 
under  the  great  ilex-trees  in  front  of  the  convent  gate 
towards  Albano  and  the  sea.  A  door  in  the  wall  on  the 
right  of  the  lane  which  leads  down  towards  Albano,  admits 
one  to  the  remains  of  the  Roman  Amphitheatre,  now  used  as 
folds  for  goats,  who  crowd  the  rugged  recesses  of  its  caverned 
masonry,  and  group  themselves  picturesquely  on  its  old 
walls.  This  was  the  scene  of  some  of  the  worst  cruelties 
of  Domitian.  The  other  Roman  remains  in  Albano  are 
insignificant,  the  ruins  of  the  Prcetorian  Camp  near  the 
Church  of  S.  Paolo,  and  some  fragments  of  Roman  oma- 


LAKE  OF  ALBANO.  67 

mentation  built  into  the  Church  of  Sta.  Maria  della  Rotonda 
being  the  chief  of  them. 

Turning  the  rocky  corner  beyond  the  Cappuccini  we  come 
at  once  upon  one  of  the  loveHest  scenes  in  this  land  of 
beauty,  and  look  down  upon 

*•— the  still  glassy  lake  that  sleeps 
Beneath  Aricia's  trees."  • 

At  the  other  end  of  the  lake  stands,  on  the  hill-side, 
Castel  Gandolfo,  embossed  against  the  delicate  hues  of  the 
distant  Campagna.  Beneath  us,  buried  in  verdure,  is  the 
famous  Emissarium ;  on  the  opposite  shore  was  the  site  of 
Alba  Longa;  and  on  the  right,  beyond  the  convent  of 
Palazzuola,  rise  Rocca  di  Papa,  and  the  Alban  Mount. 
The  lake  itself,  which  occupies  the  crater  of  an  extinct 
volcano,  is  6  miles  in  circuit,  2  J  miles  long,  and  1}  miles 
wide.  Concerning  its  origin,  a  legend  was  related  to  one  of 
the  translators  of  Niebuhr's  History^  by  a  peasant  boy,  who 
guided  him  to  Frescati,  as  follows  : — 

"  *  Where  the  lake  now  lies,  there  once  stood  a  great  city.  Here, 
when  Jesus  Christ  came  into  Italy,  He  begged  alms.  None  took  com- 
passion on  Him  but  an  old  woman,  who  gave  Him  two  handfuls  of  meal. 
He  bade  her  leave  the  city  :  she  obeyed :  the  city  instantly  sank  ;  and 
the  lake  rose  in  its  place.'  To  set  the  truth  of  the  story  beyond  dispute, 
the  narrator  added,  Sta  scritto  nei  libri.''^ — Niebuhr's  Hist,  of  Rome. 

"The  lakes  of  Alba  and  Nemi,  like  others  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Rome,  are  of  a  peculiar  character.  In  their  elevation,  lying  nestled  as 
it  were  high  up  in  the  bosoiu  of  the  mountains,  they  resemble  what  in 
Cumberland  and  Westmoreland  are  called  tarns  ;  but  our  tarns,  like 
ordinary  lakes,  have  their  visible  feeders  and  outlets,  their  head  which 
receives  the  streams  from  the  mountain-sides,  and  their  foot  by  which 
they  discharge  themselves,  generally  in  a  larger  stream,  into  the  valley 
below.  The  lakes  of  Alba  and  Nemi  lie  each  at  the  bottom  of  a  perfect 
basin,  and  the  unbroken  rim  of  this  basin  allows  them  no  visible  outlet. 

*  Macaulay's  Lays, 


68  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Again,  it  sometimes  happens  that  lakes  so  situated  have  their  outlet 
under-ground,  and  that  the  stream  which  drains  them  appears  again  to 
the  day  after  a  certain  distance,  having  made  its  way  through  the  basin 
of  the  lake  by  a  tunnel  provided  for  it  by  nature.  This  is  the  case  par- 
ticularly where  the  prevailing  rock  is  the  mountain  or  metalliferous  lime- 
stone of  Derbyshire,  which  is  full  of  caverns  and  fissures ;  and  an 
instance  of  it  may  be  seen  in  the  small  lake  or  tarn  of  Malham  in  York- 
shire, and  another  on  a  much  larger  scale  in  the  lake  of  Copais  in 
Boeotia.  But  the  volcanic  rocks,  in  which  the  lake  of  Alba  lies,  do  not 
afford  such  natural  tunnels,  or  at  least  they  are  exceedingly  small,  and 
unequal  to  the  discharge  of  any  large  quantity  of  water  ;  so  that  if  any 
unusual  cause  swells  the  lake,  it  can  find  no  adequate  outlet,  and  rises 
necessarily  to  a  higher  level.  The  Roman  tradition  reported  that  such 
a  rise  took  place  in  the  year  357  ;  it  was  caused  probably  by  some  vol- 
canic agency,  and  increased  to  such  a  height,  that  the  water  at  last  ran 
over  the  basin  of  the  hills  at  its  lowest  point,  and  poured  down  into  the 
Campagna.  Traces  of  such  an  outlet  are  said  to  be  still  visible ;  and  it  is 
asserted  that  there  are  marks  of  artificial  cutting  through  the  rock,  as  it 
to  enlarge  and  deepen  the  passage.  This  would  suppose  the  ordinaiy 
level  of  the  lake  in  remote  times  to  have  been  about  two  hundred  feet 
higher  than  it  is  at  present ;  and  if  this  were  so,  the  actual  tunnel  was 
intended  not  to  remedy  a  new  evil,  but  to  alter  the  old  state  of  the  lake 
for  the  better,  by  reducing  it  for  the  time  to  come  to  a  lower  level. 
Possibly  the  discharge  over  the  edge  of  the  basin  became  suddenly 
greater,  and  so  suggested  the  idea  of  diverting  the  water  altogether  by  a 
different  channel.  But  the  whole  story  of  the  tunnel,  as  we  have  it,  is  so 
purely  a  part  of  the  poetical  account  of  the  fall  of  Veil,  that  no  part  of 

it  can  be  relied  on  as  historical Admitting  that  it  was 

wholly  worked  through  the  tufa,  which  is  easily  wrought,  still  the 
labour  and  expense  of  such  a  tunnel  must  have  been  considerable  ;  and 
in  the  midst  of  an  important  war,  how  could  either  money  or  hands 
have  been  spared  for  such  a  purpose  ?  Again,  was  the  work  exclusively 
a  Roman  one,  or  performed  by  the  Romans  jointly  with  the  Latins,  as 
an  object  of  common  concern  to  the  whole  confederacy  ?  The  Alban 
lake  can  scarcely  have  been  within  the  domain  of  Rome  ;  nor  can  we 
conceive  that  the  Romans  could  have  been  entitled  to  divert  its  waters 
at  their  pleasure  without  the  consent  of  the  neighbouring  cities.  But  if 
it  were  a  common  work  ;  if  the  Latins  entered  heartily  into  the  struggle 
of  Rome  with  Veii,  regarding  it  as  a  struggle  between  their  race  and 
that  of  the  Etruscans  ;  if  the  overflow  of  the  waters  of  their  national 
lake,  the  lake  which  bathed  the  foot  of  the  Alban  mountain,  where  their 
national  temple  stood,  and  their  national  solemnities  were  held,  excited 


THE  EMISSARWM.  69 

an  interest  in  every  people  of  the  Latin  name,  then  we  may  understand 
how  their  joint  labour  and  joint  contributions  may  have  accomplished 
the  work  even  in  the  midst  of  war ;  and  the  Romans,  as  they  disguised 
on  every  occasion  the  true  nature  of  their  connexion  with  the  Latins, 
would  not  fail  to  represent  it  as  exclusively  their  own." — Arnold's  Hist, 
of  Rome^  vol.  i.  ch.  xxiii. 

Following  the  beautiful  avenue  of  ilexes,  known  as  the 
Galleria  di  Sopra,  as  far  as  the  Convent  of  S.  Francesco,  we 
shall  find  a  little  path  winding  down  through  thickets  of 
cistus  and  genista  to  the  water's  edge,  where  we  may  see  the 
remains  of  the  famous  Emissarium,  constructed  B.C.  394. 
The  extreme  beauty  of  the  spot  is  worthy  of  the  romantic 
story  of  its  origin. 

*'  For  seven  years  and  more  the  Romans  had  been  besieging  Veil. 
Now  the  summer  was  far  advanced,  and  all  the  springs  and  rivers  were 
very  low  ;  when  on  a  sudden  the  waters  of  the  Lake  of  Alba  began  to 
rise ;  and  they  rose  above  its  banks,  and  covered  the  fields  and  the 
houses  by  the  water-side  ;  and  still  they  rose  higher  and  higher,  till  they 
reached  the  top  of  the  hills  which  surrounded  the  lake  as  with  a  wall, 
and  they  overflowed  where  the  hills  were  lowest ;  and  behold  the  water 
of  the  lake  poured  down  in  a  mighty  torrent  into  the  plain  beyond. 
When  the  Romans  found  that  the  sacrifices  which  they  offered  to  the 
gods  and  powers  of  the  place  were  of  no  avail,  and  their  prophets  knew 
not  what  counsel  to  give  them,  and  the  lake  still  continued  to  overflow 
the  hills  and  to  pour  into  the  plain  below,  then  they  sent  over  the  sea  to 
Delphi,  to  ask  counsel  of  the  oracle  of  Apollo,  which  was  famous  in 
every  land. 

'*  So  the  messengers  were  sent  to  Delphi.  And,  meanwhile,  the 
report  of  the  overflowing  of  the  lake  was  much  talked  of ;  so  that  the 
people  of  Veii  heard  of  it.  Now  there  was  an  old  Veientian,  who  was 
skilled  in  the  secrets  of  the  Fates,  and  it  chanced  that  he  was  talking 
from  the  walls  with  a  Roman  centurion  whom  he  had  known  before  in 
the  days  of  peace  ;  and  the  Roman  spoke  of  the  ruin  that  was  coming 
upon  Veii,  and  was  sorry  for  the  old  man  his  friend  ;  but  the  old  man 
laughed  and  said  :  '  Ah  !  ye  think  to  take  Veii ;  but  ye  shall  not  take  it 
till  the  waters  of  the  Lake  of  Alba  are  all  spent,  and  flow  out  into 
the  sea  no  more.'  When  the  Roman  heard  this  he  was  much  moved 
by  it,  for  he  knew  that  the  old  man  was  a  prophet ;  and  the  next 
day  he  came  again  to  talk  with  the  old  man,  and  he  enticed  him  to 


70  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

come  out  of  the  city,  and  to  go  aside  with  him  to  a  lonely  place,  saying 
that  he  had  a  certain  matter  of  his  own  concerning  whicli  he  desired  to 
know  the  secrets  of  fate  :  and  while  they  were  talking  together,  he 
seized  the  old  man,  and  carried  him  off  to  the  Roman  camp,  and  brought 
him  before  the  generals  ;  and  the  generals  sent  him  to  Rome  to  the 
Senate.  Then  the  old  man  declared  all  that  was  in  the  Fates  concern- 
ing the  overflow  of  the  Lake  of  Alba  ;  and  he  told  the  Senate  what  they 
were  to  do  with  the  water,  that  it  might  cease  to  flow  into  the  sea :  *  If 
the  lake  overflow,  and  its  waters  run  out  into  the  sea,  woe  unto  Rome  ; 
but  if  it  be  drawn  off,  and  the  waters  reach  the  sea  no  longer,  then  it  is 
woe  unto  Veii.'  But  the  Senate  would  not  believe  the  old  man's  words, 
till  the  messengers  should  come  back  from  Delphi. 

"  After  a  time  the  messengers  came  back,  and  the  answer  of  the  god 
agreed  in  all  things  with  the  words  of  the  old  man  at  Veii.  For  it  said, 
*  See  that  the  waters  be  not  confined  within  the  bason  of  the  lake  ;  see 
that  they  take  not  their  own  course  and  run  into  the  sea.  Thou  shalt 
let  the  water  out  of  the  lake,  and  thou  shalt  turn  it  to  the  watering  of 
thy  fields,  and  thou  shalt  make  courses  for  it  till  it  be  spent  and  come  to 
nothing.'  Then  the  Romans  believed  the  oracle,  and  they  sent  work- 
men, and  began  to  bore  through  the  side  of  the  hills  to  make  a  passage 
for  the  water.  And  the  water  flowed  out  through  this  passage  under- 
ground ;  and  it  ceased  to  flow  over  the  hills  ;  and  when  it  came  out  from 
the  passage  into  the  plain  below,  it  was  received  into  many  courses 
which  had  been  dug  for  it,  and  it  watered  the  fields,  and  became 
obedient  to  the  Romans,  and  was  all  spent  in  doing  them  service,  and 
flowed  to  the  sea  no  more.  And  the  Romans  knew  that  it  was  the  will 
of  the  gods  that  they  should  conquer  Veii." — Arnold's  Hist,  of  Rome. 

"L'emissaire  fonctionne  encore  aujourd'hui ;  par  lui  les  eaux  du 
lac  arrosent  la  campagne  romaine  et  vont  se  jeter  non  dans  la  nier  mais 
dans  le  Tibre :  I'oracle  a  done  ete  obei,  aussi  Veies  a  ete  prise." — 
Ampere,  Hist.  Rom.  ii.  526. 

The  opening  of  the  Emissarium  is  enclosed  within  a 
Nymphseum  of  imperial  date,  such  as  is  beautifully  described 
in  the  lines  of  Virgil : — 

"Fronte  sub  adversa  scopulis  pendentibus  antrum  ; 
Intus  aquae  dulces,  vivoque  sedilia  saxo  j 
Nympharum  domus." 

^n.  i.  167. 

A  custode  (who  resides  ait  Castel  Qandolfo)  is  required  to 


THE   VILLA  BARBERINL  71 

open  the  grating.  Italians  always  set  fire  to  little  paper 
boats,  which  they  call  "  fates,"  and  float  them  down  through 
the  darkness,  where  they  may  be  seen  burning  for  an  im- 
mense distance.  Near  the  Nymphaeum  are  many  ruins  of 
other  Roman  buildings  known  by  the  country  people  as 
Bagni  di  Diana,  Grotte  delle  Ninfe,  &c.  All  probably  are 
remains  of  the  summer  retreats  of  Domitian. 

•*  Quand,  par  un  beau  jour  de  printemps,  on  contemple  le  lac  endormi 
dans  une  coupe  de  verdure  et  reflechissant  les  gracieuses  ondulations  de 
ses  bords,  ^  la  pensee  de  Domitien  on  voit  apparaitre  le  bateau  ou  Pline 
le  Jeune  nous  le  montre  trouble  par  du  bruit  des  rames,  dont  chaque 
coup  le  fait  tressaillir.  II  fallait  cesser  de  ramer  et  le  remorquer.  *  A- 
lors,'  dit  Pline,  'immobile  dans  ce  bateau  muet,  il  semblait  traine 
comma  k  une  expiation.'  " — Amph-ey  UEmp.  Rom.  ii.  135. 

Clambering  up  the  hill  again,  we  find  the  height  crested 
by  the  fine  trees  overhanging  the  wall  of  the  Villa  Barberi?ii. 
The  beautiful  grounds  of  this  villa  may  always  be  visited  by 
strangers,  and  present  an  immense  variety  of  lovely  views, 
from  a  foreground,  half  cultivated  and  half  wild,  ending  in  a 
grand  old  avenue  of  umbrella-pines.  The  ruins,  which  we 
see  here  in  such  abundance,  are  supposed  to  be  remains  of 
the  Villa  of  Pompey,  or  of  the  "insane  structures,"  as 
Cicero  calls  them,  belonging  to  the  villa  of  Clodius.  As 
we  wander  here  we  cannot  but  call  to  mind  the  whole  grand 
invocation  of  Cicero  in  his  speech  in  behalf  of  Milo  against 
the  owner  of  this  villa. 

**  And  you,  hills  and  groves  of  Alba,  you,  I  say,  I  entreat  and  im- 
plore, and  you,  the  ruined  shrines  of  the  Albans,  so  closely  knit  with 
all  that  is  revered  by  the  people  of  Rome,  altars  which  this  fellow  in  his 
headlong  madness  had  dared  to  strip  and  rob  of  their  holy  groves,  and 
bury  beneath  the  insane  piles  of  his  own  buildings.  Then  it  was  your 
shrines,  your  rites  that  were  honoured,  your  influence  which  prevailed, 
which  he  had  insulted  with  crime  of  every  kind,  and  thou,  from  thy 
lofty  peak,  great  Jupiter  Latiaris,  whose  lake  and  woods  and  fields  he 


72  DA  YS  NEAR,  ROME, 

liad  often  defiled  with  every  abominable  wickedness  and  crime,  at  last 
thou  openedst  thine  eyes  to  punish  him  :  to  you,  late  though  you  might 
deem  it,  his  punishment  was  a  just  and  due  atonement." 

Words  fail  to  paint  the  glories  of  Italian  sunset  as  seen 
from  the  Villa  Barberini. 

**  Various  as  the  Campagna  is  in  outline  it  is  quite  as  various  in  colour, 
reflecting  every  aspect  of  the  sky,  and  answering  every  touch  of  the 
seasons.  Day  after  day  it  shifts  the  slide  of  its  wondrous  panorama  of 
changeful  pictures — now  tender  in  the  fresh  green  and  flower-flush  of 
spring — now  golden  in  the  matured  richness  of  summer — and  now  sub- 
dued and  softened  into  purple-browns  in  the  autumn  and  winter. 
Silent  and  grand,  with  shifting  opal  hues  of  blue,  violet,  and  rose,  the 
mountains  look  upon  the  plain.  Light  clouds  hide  and  cling  to  their 
airy  crags,  or  drag  along  them  their  trailing  shadows.  Looking  down 
from  the  Alban  Hill  one  sees  in  the  summer  noons  wild  thunder-storms, 
with  sloping  spears  of  rain  and  flashing  blades  of  lightning,  charge  over 
the  plain  and  burst  here  and  there  among  the  ruins,  while  all  around  the 
full  sunshine  basks  upon  the  Campagna,  and  trembles  over  the  moun- 
tains. Towards  twilight  the  landscape  is  transfigured  in  a  blaze  of 
colour — the  earth  seems  fused  in  a  fire  of  sunset — the  ruins  are  of  beaten 
gold — the  meadows  and  hollows  are  as  crucibles  where  delicate  rain- 
bows melt  into  every  tone  and  gradation  of  colour — a  hazy  and  misty 
splendour  floats  over  the  shadows,  and  earth  drinks  in  the  glory  of  the 
heavens.  Then  softly  a  grey  veil  is  drawn  over  the  plain,  the  shadow 
creeps  up  the  mountain-side,  the  purples  deepen,  the  fires  of  sunset  fade 
away  into  cold  ashes— and  sunset  is  gone  almost  while  we  speak.  The 
air  grows  chill,  and  in  the  hollows  and  along  the  river  steal  long  white 
snakes  of  mist— fires  from  the  stubble  begin  to  show  here  and  there— the 
sky's  deep  orange  softens  slowly  into  a  glowing  citron,  with  tinges  of 
green,  then  refines  into  paler  yellows,  and  the  great  stars  begin  to  look 
out  from  the  soft  deep-blue  above.  Then  the  Campagna  is  swallowed 
up  in  dark,  and  chilled  with  damp  and  creeping  winds." — Story'' s  Roba 
di  Roma,  i.  324. 

Close  to  the  entrance  of  the  villa,  is  the  town-gate  of 

Castel  Gandolfo,  the  favourite  summer  residence  of  the  popes 

for  the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  the  only  portion 

of  their  property  outside  the  Vatican  walls,  left  untouched. 

since  the  Sardinian  occupation.     The  place  was  the  fortress 


CASTEL  GANDOLFO.  73 

of  the  Gandolfi  family  in  the  12  th  century,  when  Otho  Gan- 
dolfi  was  senator  of  Rome.  In  12 18,  it  passed  to  the 
SaveUi,  who  held  it  for  four  hundred  years,  triumphantly 
defying  all  attempts  to  wrest  it  from  them.  In  1596  it  was 
raised  into  a  duchy  for  Bernardino  SaveUi  by  Sixtus  V.,  but 
poverty  obliged  him  to  sell  the  property  to  the  government 
for  150,000  scudi,  an  enormous  sum  in  those  days.  Clement 
VIII.,  by  a  decree  of  1604,  incorporated  it  with  the  temporal 
domain  of  the  Holy  See,  and  included  it  expressly  in  the 
bull  of  Pius  V.  de  non  infeudandis  bonis  Ecclesice.  It  was  re- 
served for  Urban  VIII.  in  1604  to  adopt  it  as  a  residence, 
and  to  build  the  palace  from  designs  of  Carlo  Maderno, 
Bartolomeo  Breccioli,  and  Domenico  Castelli.  Urban  came 
every  year  to  Castel  Gandolfo,  and  a  large  number  of  his 
bulls  are  dated  from  hence.  The  pontifical  palace  was  en- 
larged by  Alexander  VII.,  and  completed  by  Clement  XIII. 
The  interior  is  furnished  in  the  simplest  manner  and  is  little 
worth  visiting.  Pius  IX.  spent  part  of  each  summer  here, 
before  the  invasion ;  and  every  afternoon  saw  him  riding  on 
his  white  mule  in  the  old  avenues  or  on  the  terraced  paths 
above  the  lake,  followed  by  his  cardinals  in  their  scarlet 
robes — a  most  picturesque  and  mediaeval  scene. 

The  Church  of  S.  Thomas  of  Villanuova,  close  to  the 
palace,  was  built  1661,  by  Bernini,  for  Alexander  VII.  Its 
altar-piece  is  by  Pietro  da  Cortona. 

Not  many  tourists  penetrate  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake, 
yet  here,  it  is  established  with  tolerable  certainty,  was  the 
Site  of  Alba  Longa,  the  mother  city  of  Rome.  As  the  town 
was  entirely  destroyed  by  Tullus  Hostilius,  who  removed  its 
inhabitants  to  Rome,  and  established  them  on  the  Coelian,  its 
situation  was  long  a  disputed  point  with  topographers,  and 


74  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

was  generally  asserted  to  be  that  now  occupied  by  Palazzuola, 
but  Sir  W.  Gell  discovered  traces  of  an  ancient  road  leading 
up  the  hills  from  the  plain  to  the  further  shore  of  the  lake, 
and  suddenly  terminating  there  at  a  turn  of  the  precipice. 
This  caused  an  examination  of  the  spot  to  which  it  led,  and 
resulted  in  the  discovery  of  vast  blocks  of  masonry  and  por- 
tions of  columns  buried  beneath  the  underwood,  probably 
fragments  of  the  temples  of  the  gods  which  Strabo  tells  us 
were  spared  by  the  Romans  amid  the  general  destruction. 
A  knoll  to  the  north  was  also  found  to  be  covered  with 
ruins. 

Alba  was  the  metropolis  of  the  cities  of  Latium  before  the 
building  of  Rome.  Its  foundation  is  ascribed  by  the 
Latin  poets  to  Ascanius,  and  its  name  to  the  white  sow  of 
Eneas,  and  her  thirty  little  pigs. 

"Ex  quo  ter  denis  urbem  redeuntibus  annis 
Ascanius  clari  condet  cognominis  Albam." 

^n.  viii.  47. 
"Et  stetit  Alba  potens,  albae  suis  omine  nata." 

Fropert,  iv.  El.  i. 

"  Turn  gratus  liilo, 

Atque  novercali  sedes  praelata  Lavino, 
Conspicitur  sublimis  apex  ;  cui  Candida  nomen 
Scrofa  dedit." 

Juv.  Sat.  xii.  70. 

Lycophron  however  {Cassandra^  v.  1255)  says  that  the 
sow  was  black. 

**  La  truie  figure  encore  dans  les  armes  de  la  petite  ville  d'Albano,  et 
un  bas-relief  qui  la  represente  au  milieu  de  sa  famille,  encastre  dans  le 
mur  d'une  maison  du-dessus  d'une  fontaine,  a  donne  a  une  rue  de  Rome 
le  nom  de  rue  de  la  Truie  (Via  della  Scrofa) ;  allusion  bien  moderne  ^  un 
bien  antique  souvenir." — Ampire^  Hist.  Rom.  i.  196. 

Since  attention  was  first  turned  to  this  spot,  every  sue- 


ALBA  LONG  A.  75 

ceeding  discovery  has  curiously  confirmed  the  opinion  that 
it  is  the  true  site  of  Alba. 

"The  characteristics  of  the  city  of  Alba,  says  Dionysius  of  Halicar- 
nassus,  were,  *  that  it  was  so  built,  with  regard  to  the  mountain  and 
the  lake,  that  it  occupied  a  space  between  them,  each  seeming  like  a 
wall  of  defence  to  the  city.'  .  .  .  Livy  (Lib.  i.  c.  3)  has  a  pas- 
sage, which  is  too  descriptive  of  Alba  Longa  to  be  omitted :  *  Ascanius, 
abundante  Lavinii  multitudine  .  .  .  novam  ipse  aliam  sub  Albano 
monte  condidit ;  quae  ab  situ  porrectce  in  dorso  urbis,  Longa  Alba 
adpellata.'  Dionysius  also  (Lib.  i. )  informs  us  that  the  name  Longa  was 
added  *on  account  of  the  shape  {tov  (Txrifiarog)  of  its  ground  plan  ;' 
Varro,  chat  it  was  called  Longa,  *  propter  loci  naturam  ; '  and  Aure- 
lius  Victor,  *  eamque  ex  forma,  qu6d  ita  in  longum  porrecta  est, 
Longam  cognominavit." 

.  .  .  "There  is  a  tradition,  that  the  palace  of  the  kings  of  Alba 
stood  on  a  rock,  and  so  near  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  that  when  the 
impiety  of  one  of  its  monarchs  provoked  Jupiter  to  strike  it  with  his 
lightning,  a  part  of  the  mass  was  precipitated  into  the  lake,  carrying 
the  impious  king  along  with  the  ruins  of  his  habitation.  Now  this  tra- 
dition  is  apparently  confirmed  by  a  singular  feature  in  a  part  of  the  re- 
mains of  this  city  ;  for  directly  under  the  rock  of  the  citadel  towards  the 
lake,  and  where  the  palace,  both  for  security  and  prospect,  would  have 
been  placed,  is  a  cavern  about  fifty  feet  in  depth,  and  more  than  one 
hundred  in  width,  a  part  of  the  roof  of  which  has  evidently  fallen  in,  and 
some  of  its  blocks  remain  on  the  spot.  This  may  be  visited  from  below 
without  difficulty,  by  a  small  path  used  by  goat-herds  and  wood-cutters, 
leading  across  four  deep  ravines  to  Palazzuola." — Sir  W.  Cell. 

It  is  a  beautiful  walk  or  drive  back  to  Albano,  through  the 

Galleria  di  Sotto,  shaded  by  huge  ilexes  which  were  planted 

by  Urban  VIII.,  or  are  even  of  older  date.     These  gigantic 

trees,  acquainted  for  centuries,  often  lean  together  against 

the  walls  as  if  in  earnest  conversation ;  often,  faint  from  old 

age,  are  propped  on  stone  pillars,  supported  by  which,  they 

hang  out  towards  the  Campagna.    At  the  end  of  the  avenue 

we  come  upon  Pompey's  Tomb,  beneath  which  are  some  of 

the  Capanne  or  shepherds'    huts   of  reeds,    described  by 

Virgil.     On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Via  Appia  stands  the 


76  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Villa  Allieri,  consecrated  now  to  the  Italian  heart  as  having 


Galleria  di  Sotto,  Albano. 

been  the  residence  of  the  noble  and  self-devoted  cardinal, 
who  died  a  martyr  to  his  self-sacrifice  in  the  cholera  of  1867. 

The  disease  appeared  quite  suddenly  during  the  first  week  in  August. 
At  that  time  Albano  was  especially  crowded  with  visitors  of  high  and 
low  degree,  fi-om  the  Royal  Family  of  Naples  and  the  principal  members 
of  the  Roman  aristocracy,  to  the  thrifty  Jewish  salesman  from  the  Ghetto, 
intent  on  combining  a  stroke  of  business  with  change  of  air.  On  a 
beautiful  Monday  afternoon  various  parties  were  given  in  the  gardens  of 
the  principal  villas,  and  as  Albano  had  always  hitherto  been  exempt 
from  attacks  of  pestilence,  no  alarm  was  felt,  though  there  were  already 
cases  of  cholera  at  Rome.  Suddenly  a  cloud,  bringing  a  strange  chill, 
seemed  to  rise  out  of  the  Campagna  ;  cloaks  and  wraps  were  brought 
out  for  those  who  were  feasting  in  the  gardens,  but  the  chill  passed 
away  as  quickly  as  it  had  come,  and  was  succeeded  by  great  heat. 
Almost  immediately  the  pestilence  began.  People  were  attacked  on  the 
garden-seats  as  they  sat.  Before  morning  there  were  115  cases  and  15 
deaths.  All  who  could,  fled  to  Rome  and  the  neighbouring  towns. 
**  The  prevailing  features  of  the  scene  were  the  processions  of  priests 
with  the  consecrated  host,  litters  conveying  the  sick  to  the  hospital,  and 
carts  conveying  the  dead  to  the  cemetery.  The  usual  agents  in  the  latter 
operation,  being  by  no  means  adequate  in  number  to  the  amount  of 
doleful  work  thus  devolved  upon  them,  were  aided  by  the  soldier  of  a 
company  of  Zouaves,  who  had  been  sent  to  Albano  for  change  of  air 
after  recovery  from  fever,  and  who  arrived  opportunely  on  the  very 
morning  when  their  aid  was  so  much  needed.  Telegraphic  messages 
were  sent  to  Rome  repeatedly  in  the  course  of  the  day,  requesting 


THE  CHOLERA  A  T  ALBANO.  77 

medical  aid,  instructions,  and  vehicles.  Cardinal  Altieri,  being  bishop 
of  Albano,  came  out  from  the  capital  to  encourage  the  towns-people  by 
his  presence,  and  take  the  direction  of  affairs.  In  the  course  of  the 
afternoon  many  people  arrived  from  Rome  in  a  state  of  great  anxiety 
about  their  families  or  relatives,  whom  they  had  left  at  Albano,  and 
whom  they  were  desirous  of  coinveying  elsewhere  as  soon  as  possible. 
Means  of  transport  to  the  capital  by  the  high  road  became  suddenly 
scarce,  and  the  drivers  of  omnibuses  down  to  the  station  availed  them- 
self  of  the  opportunity  of  exacting  double  fare  from  the  panic-stricken 
fugitives  who  surrounded  the  vehicles."  At  the  entrance  of  the  Olmata 
of  Genzano,  a  cordon  was  established,  and  no  one  was  allowed  to  pass 
without  undergoing  fumigation.  On  the  same  day  the  Royal  Family  of 
Naples  was  attacked,  some  of  the  servants  died,  and  one  of  the  princes 
was  taken  ill. 

On  the  second  morning  "the  dead-carts  rolled  drearily  about  the 
town,  stopping  here  and  there  to  take  up  rude  wooden  boxes,  rather 
than  coffins,  for  conveyance  to  the  cemetery  of  the  Madonna  della  Stella. 
Many  of  the  shops  were  shut  up,  their  owners  having  either  died  or  emi- 
grated. Fruit-stalls  were  abolished."  All  who  could,  endeavoured  to 
reach  a  purer  air  if  possible,  but  it  was  already  difficult,  as  "the  au- 
thorities of  Ariccia  had  placed  guardiani  with  guns  to  prevent  any  one 
crossing  the  great  viaduct  from  Albano,  and  all  the  neighbouring  towns, 
except  Rome,  had  drawn  the  same  inextricable  cordon."  The  attacks 
of  the  disease  were  so  sudden  that  if  a  carriage  containing  five  fugitives 
took  the  way  towards  Rome,  three  were  frequently  dead  before  it  reached 
the  walls  of  the  city. 

By  the  third  morning  120  deaths  from  cholera  had  occurred  in  the 
village  of  Albano.  People  fled  in  every  direction.  "Along  the  road 
were  families  migrating  in  all  sorts  of  waggons  and  vehicles  :  the  country 
farm-houses  were  resorted  to  all  round,  though  it  was  the  fever  season, 
and  it  seemed  as  if  there  would  soon  be  none  left  to  kill  in  Albano.  But 
unfortunately  most  of  the  fugitives  took  away  the  germ  of  the  malady 
with  them,  and  died  wherever  they  might  chance  to  have  taken  refuge." 
On  the  evening  of  the  8th,  the  Queen-Dowager  of  Naples  died,  after  an 
illness  of  only  four  hours*  duration,  and  on  the  same  day  the  Princess 
Colonna,  having  fled  to  Genzano  to  the  palace  of  Duke  Cesarini,  to 
whom  her  eldest  daughter  was  engaged,  was  seized  with  cholera  at 
luncheon,  and  died  in  a  few  hours. 

Meanwhile  Cardinal  Altieri  was  unremitting  in  his  attentions  to  the 
sick  and  dying,  giving  himself  too  little  rest  either  by  night  or  day,  but 
on  the  Friday  he  was  himself  seized  with  the  malady,  and  died  on  Sunday 
the  nth.  On  the  same  day  Mr  John  Macdonald,  brother  of  the  well- 
known  sculptor,  died  soon  after  effecting  his  escape  to  Rome.    Frightful 


78  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

mortality  began  amongst  the  regiment  of  Zouaves  who  had  so  courage- 
ously devoted  themselves  to  the  dead,  and  almost  all  of  them  perished 
— chiefly,  it  is  said,  because,  owing  to  the  rapid  succession  of  deaths, 
and  the  impossibility  of  finding  grave-diggers,  the  corpses  buried  on  the 
first  day  in  one  large  grave  had  to  be  packed  to  give  more  space ! 

On  the  13th  the  cholera  catastrophe  at  Albano  had  reached  such  a 
degree  that  the  most  necessary  relations  of  social  existence  might  be  said 
to  be  annihilated.  With  the  exception  of  the  Gonfaloniere,  who  took 
flight  early,  all  the  local  authorities  were  either  ill  or  dead,  and  the  Pope 
had  sent  out  Monsignor  ApoUoni,  as  special  commissary,  to  assume  the 
government  of  the  town.  The  last  of  the  bakers  who  had  the  courage 
to  remain  in  Albano  and  carry  on  his  trade  died  on  the  12th,  so  that  to 
prevent  the  surviving  inhabitants  from  starving,  bread  and  other  pro- 
visions had  to  be  sent  out  from  Rome. 

After  the  14th  the  cholera  began  to  abate,  having  carried  off  more 
than  one-tenth  of  the  population. — From  the  Letters  of  the  *'  Times 
Correspondent  y 

The  monument  of  Cardinal  Altieri  is  the  only  object  of 
interest  in  the  Cathedral,  which  stands  in  a  small  square 
behind  the  principal  street.     It  is  inscribed  : — 

Ludovicus  de  Alteriis,  Card.  S.KR.  Episc.  Albanus, 
Pastor  bonus  cum  in  medium  gregem  dira  sseviente  lue 
advolasset,  prseclarum  vitas  cursum  morte  magnanima  con- 
summavit  sanctissime, 

III  Id.  Aug.  MDCCCLXVII.  Vixit  annos  LXII. 

Celebrated  among  the  bishops  of  Albano  was  Pietro  Aldo- 
brandini  (S.  Pietro  Igneo),  who  walked  through  fire  at  Settimo 
in  1067,  to  prove  a  charge  of  simony  against  Pietro  di  Pavia, 
bishop  of  Florence. 

The  festa  of  S.  Pancrazio — the  patron  of  Albano — is  kept 
here  with  great  solemnity. 

"From  the  cathedral  issued,  at  an  early  hour,  a  procession  whose 
length  almost  corresponded  to  that  of  the  town  itself.  There  were  little 
girls  in  tinsel  finery,  with  butterfly-wings,  intended  to  represent  angels, 
and  chubby  little  boys  who  toddled  along  in  the  disguise  of  Carmelite 
friars,  curiously  contrasting  with  the  gravity  of  friars  full  grown,  bearded 


CASTILLO  SAVELLI.  79 

capuchins,  venerable  canons,  and  full-armed  soldiers.  There  was  llie 
Gonfaloniere  with  his  two  councillors  ;  the  local  magistracy,  in  long 
robes  of  black  silk  and  velvet  lined  with  silver  tissue,  with  flat  black  caps, 
looking  not  unlike  some  of  Titian's  portraits  ;  and  another  conspicuous 
group,  very  different,  formed  by  young  girls  in  long  white  satin  dresses, 
with  veils  covering  not  only  the  head  but  the  lower  part  of  the  face, 
each  attended  by  a  buxom  matron  in  the  gayest  local  costume — a  bright- 
coloured  bodice,  white  linen  veil  folded  square  over  the  brow,  and  ample 
folds  of  muslin  round  the  largely-developed  bust,  their  full-blown  charms 
further  set  off  by  a  profusion  of  gold  ornaments  chiselled  in  a  style  re- 
sembling those  in  Etruscan  museums  —  precisely  such  figures  as  Pinelli 
and  many  other  artists  have  delighted  to  introduce  in  genre  pictures  illus- 
trative of  Italian  life  and  scenery.  The  younger  females  were  those 
selected  to  receive  small  dowries  out  of  a  fund  appropriated  to  charity, 
such  donations  being  annually  conferred  at  the  religious  seasons  in 
Albano.  Next  to  the  female  group  came  about  a  hundred  members  of 
a  lay  fraternity  in  their  peculiar  costume  with  hoods,  carrying  large 
crucifixes  and  banners  painted  on  both  sides  with  sacred  figures  life-size, 
and,  finally,  the  principal  group  of  clergy,  the  first  in  dignity  supporting 
under  a  crimson  canopy  a  bust  of  silver-gilt  containing  the  skull  of  S. 
Pancrazio." — He  mans'  Catholic  Italy. 

On  the  right  of  the  main  street,  on  entering  the  Roman 
gate,  is  the  Villa  Doria^  whose  grounds,  abounding  in  ancient 
ilex  groves,  and  in  fragments  of  ruin  of  imperial  date,  are  of 
the  most  extreme  beauty. 

About  a  mile  below  the  town  the  ruins  of  the  Castello 
Savelli  crown  a  conical  hill  above  the  plain,  and  form  a 
pleasant  object  for  a  short  excursion.  The  great  family 
of  the  SavelU  continued  to  be  lords  of  Albano  till  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  tragical  circumstances 
led  to  their  extinction.  The  young  and  handsome  heir  of 
the  house  was  betrothed  to  the  daughter  of  the  Marchese 
del  Vasto  of  Naples,  who  had  a  dowry  of  800,000  crowns. 
But  while  waiting  for  his  bride  to  attain  her  thirteenth  year, 
when  the  marriage  was  to  be  solemnized,  he  became  passion- 
ately in  love  with  a  beautiful  young  girl  of  Albano,  of 
humble  but  respectable  parentage.     Her  father,  fearing  the 


8o  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

addresses  of  his  young  lord,  hastened  her  marriage  with  one 
Cristoforo,  a  vassal  of  the  Savelli.  But  the  young  count 
continued  to  persecute  her  with  his  attentions,  took  a  house 
immediately  opposite  to  the  married  pair,  and  wrote  con- 
stantly in  the  hope  of  softening  the  object  of  his  love.  She 
remained  faithful  to  her  husband,  to  whom  she  showed  all 
the  letters  of  the  count :  but  Cristoforo  constantly  mis- 
trusted her,  and  was  full  of  jealousies.  One  day  he  borrowed 
her  flounced  petticoat  (guardinfante)  and  other  attire,  and 
forced  her  to  write  a  letter  to  Savelli  appointing  an  assigna- 
tion, persuading  her  that  he  only  intended  to  humiliate  him 
by  a  disappointment. 

Savelli  arrived  at  the  rendezvous  and  was  received  by 
Cristoforo  in  his  wife's  dress,  who  shot  him  through  the 
heart,  cut  his  throat,  and  dragged  the  corpse  to  the  front  of 
the  Savelli  palace,  where  he  left  it  weltering  in  its  blood.  On 
the  discovery  of  the  murder  all  the  inhabitants  of  Albano 
were  shut  up  in  their  houses  to  prevent  flight.  Cris- 
toforo had  made  good  his  escape,  but  his  innocent  wife  and 
all  her  family  were  arrested  and  frequently  put  to  the  tor- 
ture, in  the  hope  of  extorting  the  whereabouts  of  the  fugitive, 
of  which  they  were  really  ignorant.  After  six  months'  im- 
prisonment, the  relatives  were  set  at  liberty,  but  the  wife 
was  condemned  to  death,  and  was  only  saved  by  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Duchess  of  Parma,  who  received  her  into  her 
service,  from  whence  she  was  transferred  to  that  of  the 
Duchess  of  Modena. 

The  bereaved  father  never  recovered  the  shock  of  his  son's 
murder,  and  died  in  a  lunatic  asylum,  and  the  only  survivor 
of  the  Savelli  having  no  heir,  all  the  property  of  that  ancient 
race  passed  to  the  family  of  Chigi. 


CHAPTER  III. 


MONTE   CAVO,  NEMI,  AND    CIVITA   LAVINIA. 

(Donkeys  should  be  taken  for  the  excursion  from  Albano  to  Monte 
Cavo  and  Nemi,  except  by  very  good  walkers — price,  four  francs  each, 
the  donkey-man  four  francs,  the  guide  seven  francs,  for  the  day. 
Civita  Lavinia  will  form  a  pleasant  separate  drive  for  the  afternoon  from 
Albano — a  carriage  ought  not  to  cost  more  than  seven  or  eight  francs. 

Those  who  ascend  Monte  Cavo  from  Rome,  and  return  thither 
in  the  same  day,  may  take  the  morning  train  to  Frascati,  or,  still  better, 
drive  thither,  and  send  on  their  carriages  to  the  Hotel  de  Russie  at 
Albano  (as  being  the  hotel  nearest  to  the  "galleries"  and  the  Roman 
gate).  They  may  then  take  donkeys  at  Frascati  (price,  five  francs  for  the 
day),  and  ascend  Monte  Cavo  by  Rocca  di  Papa.  After  passing  some 
time  at  the  temple,  they  may  descend  by  the  Madonna  del  Tufo,  Palaz- 
zuola,  and  skirting  the  Alban  Lake,  visit  Castel  Gandolfo,  and  ride 
through  the  "galleries"  to  Albano.  Good  walkers  may  also  see  Nemi 
the  same  day,  but  this  is  too  great  a  hurry  to  be  commended.  The  rest 
is  an  easy  day's  work,  and  allows  time  for  returning  to  Rome  in  the 
evening  from  Albano,  where  the  horses  will  have  rested  for  many  hours. 
Those  who  do  not  bring  a  carriage  from  Rome,  and  intend  returning  by 
the  railway,  must  recollect  that  the  Albano  station  is  25  miles  distant 
from  the  town,  and  that  fatigue  and  distance,  as  well  as  expense,  are 
thus  greatly  increased. ) 

ASCENDING  the  stony  path  which  leads  from  Albano  to 
the  Cappuccini,  and  reaching  the  comer  whence  we 
overlook  the  glassy  lake,  sleeping  in  its  deep  wooded  hollow, 
let  us  turn  to  the  right  by  the  tempting  path  which  winds 
through  the  woods  and  rocks,  between  banks  which  in  spring 
are  quite  carpeted  with  cyclamen,  violets,  hepaticas,  and  every 

VOL.  I.  6 


g2  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

shade  of  anemone,  while  higher  up,  amid  the  richly  flowering 
laurestinus  and  genista,  patches  of  brilliant  pink  "  honesty  " 
glow  in  the  sunshine.  At  every  turn  the  flowers  become 
lovelier,  and  the  fore-grounds  more  as  if  they  were  waiting 
for  an  artist  to  paint  them,  till,  passing  between  some  jagged 
masses  of  rock,  which  have  fallen  down  from  the  higher  cliffs 
long  ago,  but  have  been  half  buried  for  centuries  under 
luxuriant  drapery  of  ferns  and  moss,  we  reach,  above  the 
southern  end  of  the  lake,  the  Franciscan  monastery  of 
Falazzuola. 

Here  we  may  allow  our  donkeys  to  rest  for  a  few  minutes 
on  the  little  rounded  platform  which  so  beautifully  over- 
looks the  lake,  and  stop  to  examine  a  Consular  Tomb  cut  in 
the  rock,  whicli  overhangs  the  garden  of  the  convent,  and 
which  resembles  in  style  many  of  the  tombs  in  Etruria. 
It  is  attributed  to  Caius  Cornelius  Scipio  Hispallus,  consul 
and  pontifex-maximus,  though  he  died  at  Cumae,  on  the 
very  slight  ground  that  he  was  first  attacked  with  his  fatal 
illness,  paralysis,  while  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  temple  of  the 
Alban  Mount,  in  b.c.  176. 

A  path  winding  upwards  through  the  woods  leads  from 
hence  to  the  little  sanctuary  of  the  Madonna  del  Tufo,  much 
frequented  by  the  country  people,  whence  a  beautiful  terrace 
fringed  with  ilexes  extends  to  the  picturesque  village  of 
Rocca  di  Papa,  which  occupies  an  isolated  sugar-loaf  rock 
standing  out  from  the  rest  of  the  mountain-side  and  crowned 
by  the  ruins  of  a  castle,  which  for  two  centuries  was  a  strong- 
hold of  the  Colonnas,  but  afterwards  (1487)  passed  into  the 
liands  of  the  Orsini. 

*•  All  know  that,  in  those  ages,  the  poor  and  weak  had  the  choice  of 
being  assassinated  in  two  ways,  but  they  were  obliged  to  choose  ;  either 


ROCCA  DI  PAPA.  83 

assassinated  by  casual  wandering  brigands,  or  by  established  brigands, 
settled  in  the  fortresses.  Generally  the  preference  was  given  to  the  second, 
and  thus  around  the  fortresses  was  formed  a  trembling  settlement  of  hovels 
and  huts  of  contadini,  which  were  afterwards  changed  into  villages, 
towns,  and  cities,  a  preference  which  speaks  to  the  praise  of  those  poor 
calumniated  barons  of  the  middle-ages." — Massimo  d'Azeglio. 

••Rocca  di  Papa  est  un  cone  volcanique  convert  de  maisons  super- 
posees  jusqu'au  faite,  qui  se  termine  par  un  vieux  fort  mine.  Les  caves 
d'une  zone  d'habitations  s'appuient  sur  les  greniers  de  I'autre  ;  les 
maisons  se  tombent  continuellement  sur  le  dos  ;  le  moindre  vent  fait 
pleuvoir  des  tuiles  et  craquer  des  supports.  Les  rues,  peu  a  peu  verti- 
cales,  finissent  par  des  escaliers  qui  finissent  eux-memes  par  des  blocs  de 
lave  supportant  une  ruine  difficile  a  aborder,  et  flanquee  d'un  vieil  arbre 
qui  se  penche  sur  la  ville,  comme  une  banniere  k  la  pointe  d'un  clocher. 

"  Tout  cela  est  vieux,  crevasse,  dejete  et  noir  comme  la  lave  dont  est 
sorti  ce  receptacle  de  mis^re  et  de  malproprete.  Mais,  vous  savez,  tout 
cela  est  superbe  pour  un  peintre.  Le  soleil  et  1' ombre  se  heurtent  vive- 
ment  sur  des  angles  de  rochers  qui  percent  de  toutes  parts  k  travers  les 
maisons,  sur  des  fa9ades  qui  se  penchent  Tune  contre  I'autre,  et  tout  a 
coup  se  tournent  le  dos  pour  obeir  aux  mouvements  du  sol,  apre  et 
tourmente,  qui  les  supporte,  les  presse  et  les  separe.  Comme  dans  les 
faubourgs  de  Genes,  des  arceaux  rampants  relient  de  temps  en  temps 
les  deux  cotes  de  la  ruelle  etroite,  et  ces  ponts  servent  eux-memes  de 
rues  aux  habitants  du  quartier  superieur. 

"Tout  done  est  precipice  dans  cette  ville  folle,  refuge  desespere  des 
temps  de  guerre,  cherche  dans  le  lieu  le  plus  incommode  et  le  plus  im- 
possible qui  se  puisse  imaginer.  Les  confins  de  la  steppe  de  Rome  sont 
bordes,  en  plusieurs  endroits,  de  ces  petits  crateres  pointus,  qui  ont  tous 
leur  petit  tort  demantele  et  leur  petite  ville  en  pain  de  sucre,  s'ecroulant 
et  se  relevant  sans  cesse,  grace  k  radjamement  de  I'habitude  et  k  I'amour 
du  clocher. 

"Cette  obstination  s'explique  par  le  bon  air  et  la  belle  vue.  Mais 
cette  vue  est  achetee  au  prix  d'un  vertige  perpetuel,  et  cet  air  est  vicie 
par  I'exces  de  salete  des  habitations.  Femmes,  enfants,  vieillards, 
cochons  et  poules  grouillent  pele-mele  sur  le  fumier.  Cela  fait  des 
groupes  bien  pittoresques,  et  ces  pauvres  enfants,  nus  au  vent  et  au 
soleil,  sont  sou  vent  beaux  comme  des  amours.  Mais  cela  serre  le  coeur 
quand-meme.  Je  crois  d'ailleurs  que  je  m'habituerais  jamais  k  les  voir 
courir  sur  ces  abiraes.  L'incurie  des  meres,  qui  laissent  leurs  petits, 
k  peine  ages  d'un  an,  marcher  et  rouler  comme  ils  peuvent  sur  ces  talus 
effrayants,  est  quelque  chose  d'inoui  qui  m'a  semble  horrible.  J'ai  de- 
nxande  s'il  n'arrivait  pas  souvent  des  accidents. 


84  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

**  *Oui,'  m'a-t-on  repondu  avec  tranquillite,  *il  se  tue  beaucoup  d'en- 
fants  et  meme  de  grandes  personnes.  Que  voulez-vous,  la  ville  est 
dangereuse  ! '  " — George  Sand,  La  Daniella. 

Rocca  di  Papa  is  frequently  used  as  a  summer  residence  by 
English  who  are  detained  all  the  year  round  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Rome  :  but  it  is  not  desirable,  being  so  exposed 
to  the  sun,  with  very  little  shade.  The  place  derives  its 
present  name  from  the  residence  here  of  the  anti-pope  John, 
in  A.D.  1 190. 

By  the  steep  path  which  scrambles  up  the  rocks  above  the 

house-tops  of  Rocca  di  Papa,  we  reach  a  wide  grassy  plain 

known   as   the    Cainpo   di  Annibale  from  a  tradition   that 

Hannibal  encamped  there  when  marching  against  Rome.* 

In  spring  it  is  covered  with  snow-drops,  pan-di-neve  the 

Italians  call  them.     Hence  we  enter  the  forest,  and  under 

the  green  boughs  and  gnarled  stems  of  the  over-arching 

trees,  in  the  hollow  way  lined  with  violets  and  fumitory, 

we  find  the  great  lava  blocks  of  the  pavement  of  the  Via 

Triumphalis  still  entire. 

"  Quaque  iter  est  Latiis  ad  summam  fascibus  Albam : 
Excelsa  de  rupe  procul  jam  conspicit  urbem." 

Lucan.  iii.  87. 

The  marks  of  chariot-wheels  still  remain.  Pope  Alexander 
VII.  was  the  last  person  who  enjoyed  a  triumph  here  in  the 
footsteps  of  Julius  Caesar,  and  he  was  drawn  up  in  a  car- 
riage. The  stones  are  frequently  marked  V.  N.,  signifying 
Via  Numinis. 

"Le  lac  d'Albano  etait  entoure  d'une  foret.  Ovide  est  sur  ce  point 
d' accord  avec  Tite  Live  (v.  15),  et  la  tradition  qui  donne  a  plusieurs  rois 
fabuleux  d'Alba  le  nom  de  Sylvius,  Homme  des  bois,  semble  confirmer 
par  les  temoignages  les  plus  anciens  la  verite  de  ce  double  temoignage. 

"  Aujourd'hui,    on  ne  trouve   un  bout  de  foret  que  plus  liaut,  en 

*  See  Livv,  xxvi.  cap.  10. 


SUMMIT  OF  MONTE  CA  VO.  8$ 

gravissant  le  Mont-Albain  (Monte-Cavi),  a  I'endroit  oil,  sous  les  grands 
chenes,  apparaissent  tout  a  coup,  parmi  les  feuilles  tombees,  les  dalles 
de  I'a  voie  Triomphale." — Ampere,  Hist.  Rom.  i.  47. 

*•  Up  this  same  Alban  Mount,  to  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Latiaris,  which 
was  for  Alba  what  the  Capitol  was  for  Rome,  the  dictators  of  Alba  and 
Latium  undoubtedly  led  their  legions  when  they  returned  in  triumph. 
This  solemnity,  in  which  the  triumphant  generals  appeared  in  royal 
robes,  was  unquestionably  derived  from  the  period  of  the  monarchy  : 
nor  would  the  Latin  commanders  deem  themselves  inferior  to  the 
Romans,  or  bear  themselves  less  proudly,  when  they  were  not  subject 
to  the  imperium  of  the  latter,  or  show  less  gratitude  to  the  gods.  Indeed 
their  triumph  was  preserved  in  that  which  the  Roman  generals  solemnized 
on  the  Alban  Mount :  for  that  the  first  who  assumed  this  honour  (C. 
Papirius  Maso)  was  renewing  an  earlier  usage,  is  at  least  far  more  pro- 
bable, than  that  he  should  have  ventured  to  assume  a  distinction  of  his 
own  devising.  He  triumphed  here,  not  properly  as  a  Roman  consul, 
but  as  commander  of  the  Latin  cohorts,  belonging  partly  to  the  towns 
of  ancient  Latium,  partly  to  the  colonies  which  sprang  out  of  that  state 
after  it  was  broken  up,  and  which  represented  it.  At  this  distance  from 
Rome  he  was  secured  from  interruption  by  his  imperium :  and  the 
honour  was  bestowed  on  him  by  the  acclamation  of  the  Latins,  seconded 
by  that  of  the  Italian  allies,  and  perhaps  expressing  itself  by  the  other- 
wise inexplicable  salutation  of  imperator,  given  to  generals  after  a 
victory  ;  a  salutation  which,  at  least  after  the  Latins  and  their  allies 
had  all  received  the  freedom  of  the  city,  was  used  by  the  Roman  legions ; 
as  they  may  have  joined  in  it  previously,  when  its  origin  was  forgotten. 
In  early  times,  if  fortune  was  propitious,  Latin  triumphs  might  be  cele- 
brated, for  wars  conducted  by  Latin  generals  under  their  own  auspices, 
and  even,  by  virtue  of  their  equality  in  the  league,  with  Latin  legions 
under  their  command." — Niebuhr  s  Hist,  of  Rome,  ii.  36. 

The  top  of  the  mount  is  a  grassy  platform,  in  the  centre 
of  which  is  a  Passionist  Convent,  built  in  1788  by  Cardinal 
York,  who  destroyed  the  ruins  of  the  famous  temple  for  the 
purpose.  The  only  remains  are  some  massive  fragments  of 
wall  and  the  huge  blocks  of  masonry  which  surround  a  grand 
old  wych-elm  tree  in  front  of  the  convent.  The  Latin  Feriae 
had  been  always  celebrated  on  the  Alban  Mount;  and  there 
Tarquin  erected  the  temple   of  Jupiter  Latiaris,  probably 


86  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

with  the  idea  of  doing  something  popular,  in  using  a  site 


Remains  of  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Latiaris,  Monte  Cavo. 

once  consecrated  to  the  protecting  god  of  the  Latin  con- 
federation : 

"  Et  residens  celsa  Latiaris  Jupiter  Alba." 

Liican.  Fhars.  i.  198. 

Piranesi  says  that  the  temple  was  240   ft.  long   and    120 

wide — the  having  the  width  half  the  length  being  according 

to  Etruscan  taste.   Servius  had  already  built  a  temple  for  the 

Latins  (that  of  Diana)  upon  the  Aventine — but : 

**  Le  Monte  Albain,  qui  s'eleve  a  trois  mille  pieds  au-dessus  de  la 
mer  et  domine  tout  la  Latium,  allait  mieux  au  Superbe,  visant  dans  tous 
ses  monuments  et  dans  tout  son  regne  a  la  grandeur  et  a  la  magnificence, 
que  I'humble  Aventin,  I'un  des  sejours  de  le  plebs  latine  favorisee  par 
Servius  et  meprisee  par  Tarquin." — Ampere,  Hist.  Rom.  i.  214. 

Instead  of  sacrificing  a  bull  on  the  Capitol,  on  the  summit 

of  the  Alban  Mount  Crassus  sacrificed  a  sheep — ovem — 

hence  ovation. 


THE  A  LB  AN  MOUNT.  87 

"La-  route  des  Ovations  est  ceile  qu'on  suit  aujourd'hui  pour  arriver 
au  sommet  du  Mont  Albain.  Une  partie,  qui  est  tres-bien  conservee, 
frappe  le  voyageur  quand  elle  lui  apparait  tout  a  coup  au  sein  d'une  foret 
solitaire.  II  est  encore  imposant  ce  souvenir,  meme  du  petit  triomphe." 
— Amptre^  Hist.  Rom.  iv.  416. 

On  the  Alban  Mount,  Juno,  in  the  JSneid^  stood  to  con- 
template the  country,  in  the  same  way  that  tourists  do  in 
our  days : — 

"  At  Juno,  e  summo,  qui  nunc  Albanus  habetur, 
Turn  neque  nomen  erat,  nee  honos  aut  gloria  monti, 
Prospiciens  tumulo,  campum  adspectabat,  et  ambas 
Laurentum  TroUmque  acies,  urbemque  Latini." 

yEn.  xii.  134. 

And  truly  the  view  is  worthy  of  the  eyes  of  a  goddess, 
though  the  heights  of  Monte  Pila  close  it  in  towards  the 
south. 

"  From  the  summit  of  the  Alban  Mount,  by  the  light  of  the  setting 
sun,  the  eye  can  reach  Corsica  and  Sardinia  ;  and  the  hill  which  still 
bears  the  name  of  Circe  looks  like  an  island  beneath  the  first  rays  of 
her  heavenly  sire.  The  line  of  the  long  street  of  Alba,  stretching 
between  the  mountain  and  the  lake,  may  still  be  made  out  distinctly. 
Monte  Cavo  was  the  Capitoline  hill  of  Alba ;  its  summits  required  to 
be  fortified,  to  secure  the  town  from  above :  and  there  is  great  probability 
in  the  conjecture,  that,  as  the  citadel  at  Rome  was  distinct  from  the 
Capitoline  temple,  the  Rocca  di  Papa  was  the  citadel  of  Albano." — 
Niehbuhr's  Hist,  of  Rome^  i.  199. 

Hence,  by  the  green  lanes  of  La  Fajola,  once  notorious 
for  their  brigands,  and  by  winding  pathlets  through  delicious 
woods,  and  narrow  ways  between  green  meadows  (somewhat 
difficult  to  find  without  a  guide),  passing  a  farm  of  the 
Corsini,  we  descend  upon  the  second  lake  of  our  pilgrimage. 

"  Lo,  Nemi !  navelled  in  the  woody  hills 
So  far,  that  the  uprooting  wind  which  tears 
The  oak  from  his  foundation,  and  which  spills 
The  ocean  o'er  his  boundary,  and  bears 
Its  foam  against  the  skies,  reluctant  spares 


8S  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  oval  mirror  of  thy  glassy  lake  ; 
And,  calm  as  cherish'd  hate,  its  surface  wears 
A  deep  cold  settled  aspect  nought  can  shake, 
All  coiled  into  itself  and  round,  as  sleeps  the  snake." 

Byron's  Childe  Harold. 

**  Ovide  dit,  en  parlant  du  lac  de  Nemi :  '  La  est  un  lac  ceint  d'une 
epaisse  foret.' 

* Sylva  prsecinctus  opacS. 

Est  lacus.'     {Fast.  iii.  263.) 

II  y'avait  done  en  cet  endroit  une  foret.  Cette  foret  etait  assez  con- 
siderable pour  faire  donner  au  sanctuaire  de  la  Diane  d' Aricie  le  nom  de 
Nemus.  Ce  bois  n'existe  plus,  mais  il  a  laisse  son  nom  au  lac  charmant 
et  au  village  pittoresque  de  Nemi.'"' — Amp^re^  Hist.  Rom.  i.  48. 


Nemi. 

The  village  of  Nemi  (far  more  worth  visiting  than  Gen- 

zaiio)  is  beautifully  situated  on  the  edge  of  a  steep  cliff  above 

the  lake,  and  is  surmounted  by  a  fine  old  castle  which,  after 

passing  through  the  hands  of  the  Colonna,  Borgia,  Picco- 

lomini,  Cenci,  Frangipani,  and  Braschi,  is  now  the  property 

of  Prince  Rospigliosi. 

"The  water  is  surrounded  in  parts  by  rocks  of  the  hardest  basaltic 
lava,  in  others  by  conglomerated  cinders  and  scoriae,  and  in  some  places 
by  banks  of  tufa.    Its  circumference  is  about  five  miles,  and  the  level  of 


LAKE  OF  NEML  89 

the  water  higher  than  that  of  the  Alban  lake.  The  story  of  the  ship 
discovered  at  the  bottom  of  this  lake,  and  said  by  some  authors  to  have 
belonged  to  the  time  of  Tiberius,  by  others  to  that  of  Trajan,  is  well 
known.  Biondi,  Leon  Battista  Alberti,  and  particularly  Francesco 
Marchi,  a  celebrated  architect  and  military  engineer  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  who  went  down  into  the  lake  himself,  have  spoken  of  it.  Fresh 
investigations  have  been  carried  on  of  late,  at  which  I  was  present,  and 
I  assert  that  the  pretended  ship  was  nothing  more  than  the  wooden 
piles  and  timbers  used  in  the  foundations  of  a  building.  The  beams  were 
of  fir  and  larch,  and  were  joined  by  metal  rails  of  various  sizes.  The 
pavement,  or  at  least  the  lowest  stratum  of  the  remains,  was  formed  of 
large  tiles  placed  upon  a  kind  of  grating  of  iron,  on  which  the  name 
Caisar  in  ancient  letters  was  marked. 

"  The  name  Caisar  seems  to  explain  the  history  of  the  building.  For 
Suetonius,  mhis  Life  of  jfulius  Ccssar,  as  an  illustration  of  the  Dictator's 
extravagance,  asserts,  that  after  having  built  a  villa  on  the  lake  of  Nemi 
at  an  enormous  expense,  he  had  the  whole  destroyed  because  it  did  not 
quite  suit  his  taste.  It  is  my  belief  that  the  pretended  ship  was  nothing 
else  than  the  piles  and  wooden  framework  upon  which  this  villa  was 
supported,  and  that  after  the  upper  part  was  destroyed  the  foundation 
under  the  water  still  remained,  partly  covered  by  fragments  of  the 
demolished  building  above." — Nibby. 

Nemi  occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient  town  of  Nemus. 

"  Albanus  lacus,  et  socii  Nemorensis  ab  unda." 

Propert.  iii.  El.  22. 
"Nemus  .  .  .  glaciale  Dianae." 

Stat.  Silv.  iv.  4. 

Diana  must  have  had  a  grove  and  temple  here  as  well  as 
at  Ariccia.  The  fountain  into  which  she  is  supposed  to  have 
changed  the  nymph  Egeria  after  the  death  of  Numa  is  pointed 
out  on  the  way  to  Genzano. 

**  Non  tamen  Egerise  luctus  aliena  levare 
Damna  valent ;  montisque  jacens  radicibus  imis 
Liquitur  in  lacrymas  :  donee  pietate  dolentis 
Mota  soror  Phoebi  gelidum  de  corpore  fontem 
Fecit,  et  aetemas  artus  tenuavit  in  undas." 

Ovid.  Metam.  xv.  547. 

Genzano^  which  forms  so  conspicuous  a  feature  in  the  view 


90  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

from  Nemi,  is  reached  by  a  circuitous  walk  along  the  ridges 
of  the  hills.  The  slopes  beneath  the  town  are  occupied  by 
the  gardens  of  Duke  Sforza-Cesarini  (which  an  order  or 
even  "  a  silver  key  "  will  generally  open  to  visitors).  The 
scenery  of  this  beautiful  hill-side  is  photographed  in  the  de- 
scription of  H.  Christian  Andersen. 

"The  lake  of  Nemi  slept  calmly  in  the  great  round  crater,  from  which 
at  one  time  fire  spouted  up  to  heaven.  We  went  down  the  amphitheatre- 
like, rocky  slope,  through  the  great  beech  wood  and  the  thick  groves  of 
plane  trees,  where  the  vines  wreathed  themselves  amongst  the  tree- 
branches.  On  the  opposite  steep  lay  the  city  of  Nemi,  which  mirrored 
itself  in  the  blue  lake.  As  we  went  along  we  bound  garlands,  entwin- 
ing the  dark  green  olive  and  fresh  vine-leaves  with  the  wild  golden 
cistus.  Now  the  deep-lying  blue  lake  and  the  bright  heavens  above 
us  were  hidden  by  the  thick  branches  and  the  vine-leaves,  now  they 
gleamed  forth  again  as  if  they  were  only  one  united  infinite  blue.  Every- 
thing was  new  and  glorious  to  me  ;  my  soul  trembled  for  its  great 
joy.  There  are  even  still  moments  in  which  the  remembrance  of  these 
feehngs  comes  forth  again  like  the  beautiful  mosaic  fragments  cf  a 
buried  city. 

* '  The  sun  burned  hotly,  and  it  was  not  until  we  were  by  the  water-side, 
where  the  plane  trees  raise  aloft  their  ancient  trunks  from  the  lake,  and 
bend  down  their  branches,  heavy  with  en  wreathing  vines,  to  the  watery- 
mirror,  that  we  found  it  cool  enough  to  continue  our  work.  Beautiful 
water-plants  nodded  here  as  if  they  dreamed  under  the  cool  shadow,  and 
they  too  made  part  of  our  garlands.  Presently,  however,  the  sunbeams 
no  longer  reached  the  lake,  but  only  played  upon  the  roofs  of  Nemi  and 
Genzano  ;  and  the  gloom  descended  upon  where  we  sate.  I  went  a 
little  distance  from  the  others,  yet  only  a  few  paces,  for  my  mother  was 
afraid  that  I  should  fall  into  the  lake  where  it  was  deep  and  the  banks 
were  steep.  Not  far  from  the  small  stone  ruins  of  an  old  temple  of 
Diana  there  lay  a  huge  fig-tree  which  the  ivy  had  already  begun  to 
bind  fast  to  the  earth  ;  I  climbed  upon  this,  and  wove  a  garland 
whilst  I  sang  from  a  canzonet, — 

Ah,  rossi,  rossi  fiori, 
Un  mazzo  di  viole ! 
Un  gelsomin  d'amore." 

The  Palazzo  Cesarini  contains  nothing  of  interest,  but  is 

associated  with  one  of  those  dramas  of  real  life  which  are 


GENZANO.  91 

seldom  found  out  of  Italy.  A  Duchess  Cesarini  dreamt  be- 
fore her  confinement  that  she  should  give  birth  to  twins,  one 
of  whom  would  endanger  the  happiness  of  the  other.  De- 
termined to  obviate  this  misfortune,  she  bribed  the  midwife 
to  convey  one  of  the  children  away  as  soon  as  it  was  born, 
and  bring  it  up  as  a  peasant.  This  was  done,  and  the  young 
Cesarini  served  as  a  shepherd,  .supposing  himself  to  be  a 
shepherd's  son,  till  after  he  came  of  age.  Then  his  adopted 
shepherd-mother  happened  to  hear  that  the  young  Duke 
Cesarini  and  his  father  and  mother  were  dead  and  that 
there  was  no  heir  to  the  fortunes  and  title,  and  going  to  the 
palace  with  the  midwife,  she  was  able  to  produce  indisput- 
able proofs  to  the  astonished  heirs-at-law  which  established 
the  claims  of  the  shepherd-boy,  who  was  sent  to  Paris  to  be 
educated  and  became  the  late  Duke  Cesarini. 

Genzano  is  now  chiefly  celebrated  for  the  festival  of  the 
Infiorata,  which  takes  place  on  the  eighth  day  after  Corpus 
Domini,  and  is  wonderfully  appropriate  to  this  land  of  flowers. 

**  I  dreamed  till  the  sun  shone  in  at  my  window,  and  awoke  me  to  the 
beautiful  feast  of  flowers. 

"How  shall  I  describe  the  first  glance  into  the  street — that  bright 
picture  as  I  then  saw  it  ?  The  entire,  long,  gently-ascending  street  was 
covered  with  flowers  ;  the  ground  colour  was  blue  ;  it  looked  as  if  they 
had  robbed  all  the  gardens,  all  the  fields,  to  collect  flowers  enough  of 
the  same  colour  to  cover  the  street ;  over  these  lay  in  long  stripes,  green, 
composed  of  leaves,  alternately  with  rose-colour,  and  at  some  distance 
from  this  was  a  similar  stripe,  as  it  were  a  broad  border  to  the  whole 
carpet.  The  middle  of  this  represented  stars  and  suns,  which  were 
formed  by  a  close  mass  of  yellow,  round,  and  star-like  flowers  ;  more 
labour  still  had  been  spent  upon  the  formation  of  names — here  flower 
was  laid  upon  flower,  leaf  upon  leaf.  The  whole  was  a  living  flower- 
carpet,  a  mosaic  floor,  richer  in  pomp  of  colouring  than  anything  which 
Pompeii  can  show.  Not  a  breath  of  air  stirred — the  flowers  lay  im- 
moveable, as  if  they  were  heavy,  firmly-set  precious  stones.  From  all 
the  windows  were  hung  upon  the  walls  large  carpets,  worked  in  leaves 


92  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

and  flowers,  representing  holy  pictures.  Here  Joseph  led  the  ass  on 
which  sat  the  Madonna  and  the  child  ;  roses  formed  the  faces,  the  feet, 
and  the  arms,  gilly-flowers  and  anemones  their  fluttering  garments  ;  and 
crowns  were  made  of  white  water-lilies,  brought  from  Lake  Nemi, 
Saint  Michael  fought  with  the  dragon ;  the  holy  Rosalia  showered  down 
roses  upon  the  dark  blue  globe,  wherever  my  eye  fell  flowers  related  to 
me  Biblical  legends;  and  the  people  all  round  about  were  as  joyful  as 
myself.  Rich  foreigners,  from  beyond  the  mountains,  clad  in  festal 
garments,  stood  in  the  balconies,  and  by  the  side  of  the  houses  moved 
along  a  vast  crowd  of  people,  all  in  full  holiday  costume,  each  in  the 
fashion  of  his  country.  The  sun  burnt  hotly,  all  the  bells  rang,  and  the 
procession  moved  along  the  beautiful  flower-carpet ;  the  most  charming 
music  and  singing  announced  its  approach,  choristers  swung  the  censer 
before  the  Host,  the  most  beautiful  girls  in  the  country  followed,  with 
garlands  of  flowers  in  their  hands,  and  poor  children,  with  wings  to  their 
naked  shoulders,  sang  hymns,  as  of  angels,  wliile  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
the  procession  at  the  high  altar.  Young  fellows  wore  fluttering  ribands 
around  their  pointed  hats,  upon  which  a  picture  of  the  Mddonna  was 
fastened  ;  silver  and  gold  rings  liung  to  a  chain  round  their  necks,  and 
handsome  bright-coloured  scarfs  looked  splendidly  upon  their  black 
velvet  jackets.  The  girls  of  Albano  and  Frascati  came,  with  their  thin 
veils  elegantly  thrown  over  their  black,  plaited  hair,  in  which  was  stuck 
the  silver  arrow ;  those  of  Velletri,  on  the  contrary,  wore  garlands 
around  their  hair,  and  the  smart  handkerchief,  fastened  so  low  down  in 
the  dress  as  to  leave  visible  the  beautiful  shoulde:  and  the  round  bosom. 
From  Abruzzi,  from  the  Marshes,  from  every  other  neighbouring  district, 
came  all  in  their  peculiar  national  costume,  and  produced  altogether  the 
most  brilliant  effect.  Cardinals,  in  their  mantles  woven  with  silver, 
advanced  under  canopies  adorned  with  flowers,  then  monks  of  various 
orders,  all  bearing  burning  tapers.  When  the  procession  came  out  of 
church,  an  immense  crowd  followed." —  The  Improvisatore. 

We  were  at  Genzano  on  Good  Friday,  when  all  the  boys 
of  the  place  were  busy,  not  only  "  grinding  Judas's  bones  " 
in  the  ordinary  fashion,  i.e.  by  rattling  them  together  in  a 
box,  but  were  banging  large  planks  of  wood  and  broad  strips 
of  bark  up  and  down  upon  the  church  steps,  with  almost 
frantic  fury,  to  show  what  good  Christians  they  were. 

We  took  a  little  carriage  in  the  piazza  of  Genzano  in  which 
we  rattled  merrily  down  the  hill-side  for  about  two  miles  to 


CIVITA  LAVINIA.  93 

Civita  Lavinia^  occupying  the  site  of  the  ancient  Ivanuvium, 


Breaking  Judas'  bones.     Genzano. 

and  remarkable  as  the  birth-place  of  the  Emperors  Antoninus 
Pius  and  Commodus,  of  T.  Annius  Milo  the  enemy  of 
Clodius,  of  Roscius  the  comedian,  L.  Mursena  who  was 
defended  by  Cicero,  and  P.  Sulpicius  Quirinus  who  was 
Cyrenius  the  Governor  of  Syria,  mentioned  in  St.  Luke's 
Gospel.  Lanuvium  was  celebrated  for  the  worship  of  Juno 
Sospita,  and  when  it  took  part  with  the  other  Latin  cities 
against  Rome  and  was  defeated,  its  inhabitants  were  not  only 
unpunished,  but  admitted  to  the  rights  of  Roman  citizens, 
on  condition  that  the  temple  of  their  goddess  should  be 
common  to  the  Romans  also. 

"  Quos  Castrum,  Phrygibusque  gravis  quondam  Ardea  misit, 
Quos  celso  devexa  jugo  Junonia  sedes 
Lanuvium." 

Sil.  Ital.  viii.  361. 

"Lanuvio  generate,  inquit,  quem  Sospita  Juno 
Dat  nobis,  Milo,  Gradivi  cape  victor  honorem." 

xiii.  364. 


94  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"Inspice,  quos  habeat  nemoralis  Aricia  Fastos 
Et  populus  Laurens,  Lanuviumque  meum : 
Est  illic  mensis  Junonius." 

Ovid.  Fast.  vi.  59. 
"  Livy  mentions  the  Juno  of  Lanuvium  more  than  once.  Lib.  xxi. 
62,  he  says,  '  among  other  prodigies,  it  was  affirmed  that  the  spear  of 
Lanuvian  Juno  vibrated  spontaneously,  and  that  a  raven  flew  into  the 
temple  ; '  and  again :  '  forty  pounds  of  gold  were  sent  to  Lanuvium,  as 
an  offering  to  the  goddess.'  In  another  place  he  says  (xxiii.  31),  *  the 
statues  at  Lanuvium  in  the  temple  of  Juno  Sospita,  shed  blood,  and  a 
shower  of  stones  fell  round  the  temple  ; '  and  in  Lib.  xxiv.  10  :  '  the 
crows  built  nests  in  the  temple  of  Juno  Sospita  at  Lanuvium.'  Cicero 
also,  in  Orat.  pro  Mur.  ad  fin.,  speaks  of  the  sacrifices  made  by  the 
consuls  to  Juno  Sospita,  in  connection  with  the  '  municipium  honestissi- 
mum '  of  Lanuvium.     In  Propertius  we  read, 

*  Lanuvium  annosi  vetus  est  tutela  draconis. ' 

There  were  great  treasures  in  the  temple,  which  Augustus   borrowed, 
as  well  as  those  of  the  Capitol,  of  Antium,  Nemus,  and  Tibur." 

Sir  W.  Cell. 


From  Civita  Lavinia. 


Civita  Lavinia  is  approached  by  a  terrace  commanding  a 
grand  v'iew  across  the  Pontine  Marshes  to  the  Circean 
mount.     It  stands   on   the  edge  of  the  promontory  and 


MONTE  GIOVE—CORIOLl.  9«J 

is  surrounded  by  dark  walls  of  peperino,  in  many  places 
apparently  of  great  antiquity.  At  the  western  extremity  is 
a  building  which  Gell  imagines  may  be  the  cella  of  the 
temple  of  Juno.  Curious  old  mediaeval  houses  are  every- 
where built  upon  the  walls,  and  are  highly  picturesque,  and 
near  the  gateway  is  a  very  fine  machicolated  tower.  In  the 
little  piazza  is  a  magnificent  sarcophagus,  now  used  as  a 
fountain.  Some  remains  of  the  theatre  were  found  in  1831, 
on  the  western  slope  below  the  town,  and  the  ancient  paved 
road  may  still  be  traced  in  its  descent  towards  the  cities  of 
the  plain. 

(Standing  out  from  the  main  line  of  hills,  below  Genzano 
are  two  projecting  spurs.  The  higher  is  Monte  Due  Torre ^ 
once  crowned  by  two  towers,  of  which  only  one  is  now  stand- 
ing, the  other  lying  in  ruins  beside  it.  The  lower,  covered 
with  vineyards  and  fruit  gardens,  and  only  marked  at  the  sum- 
mit by  a  low  tower  and  some  farm  buildings,  is  now  called 
Monte  Giove,  but  is  almost  universally  allowed  to  have 
been  the  famous  Corioli,  the  great  Volscian  city,  which  gave 
the  title  of  Coriolanus  to  its  captor,  C.  Marcius,  and  which 
was  once  at  the  head  of  a  confederation  almost  too  strong 
for  Rome. 

"There  was  a  war  between  the  Romans  and  the  Volscians  :  and  the 
Romans  attacked  the  city  of  Corioli.  The  citizens  of  Corioli  opened 
theii  gates,  and  made  a  sally,  and  drove  the  Romans  back  to  their 
camp.  Then  Caius  ran  forwards  with  a  few  brave  men,  and  called 
back  the  runaways,  and  he  stayed  the  enemy  and  turned  the  tide  of 
battle,  so  that  the  Volscians  fled  back  into  the  city.  But  Caius  fol- 
lowed them,  and  when  he  saw  the  gates  still  open,  for  the  Volscians 
were  flying  into  the  city,  then  he  called  to  the  Romans,  and  said,  '  For 
us  are  yonder  gates  set  wide  rather  than  for  the  Volscians ;  why  are  we 
afraid  to  rush  in  ? '  He  himself  followed  the  fugitives  into  the  town, 
and  the  enemy  fled  before  him  ;  but  when  they  saw  that  he  was  but 
one  man  they  turned  against  him ;  but  Caius  held  his  ground,  for  he 


96  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

was  strong  of  hand,  and  light  of  foot,  and  stout  of  heart,  and  he  drove 
the  Volscians  to  the  furthest  side  of  the  town,  and  all  was  clear  behind 
him,  so  that  the  Romans  came  in  after  him  without  any  trouble  and 
took  the  city.  Then  all  men  said,  *  Caius  and  none  else  has  won 
Corioli,'  and  Cominius  the  general  said,  'Let  him  be  called  after  the 
name  of  the  city.'  So  they  called  him  Caius  Marcius  Coriolanus." — 
Arnold's  Hist,  of  Rome. 

The  farm-house  on  Monte  Giove  now  stands  desolate 
amongst  its  vineyards,  and  there  are  no  remains  of  the  an- 
cient city  above-ground.  It  is  supposed  that  the  present 
name  of  the  hill  commemorates  a  temple  of  Jupiter  which 
may  have  remained  to  later  times,  for  the  Romans  usually 
spared  the  temples  of  the  cities  they  destroyed.  In  imperial 
times  the  town  had  quite  disappeared. 

"  There  was  a  time  when  Tibur  and  Prseneste,  our  summer  retreats, 
were  the  objects  of  hostile  vows  in  the  Capitol,  when  we  dreaded  the 
shades  of  the  Arician  groves,  when  we  could  triumph  without  a  blush 
over  the  nameless  villages  of  the  Sabines  and  Latins,  and  even  Corioli 
could  afford  a  title  not  unworthy  of  a  victorious  general." — Florus,  temp. 
Hadrian. ) 

In  returning  to  Albano  (from  Civita  Lavinia)  we  pass 
through  the  triple  avenue  of  elms  called  the  Olmafa,  planted 
in  1643  by  Giuliano  Cesarini,  as  an  approach  to  his  palace 
of  Genzano.  Then,  on  the  left,  we  pass  the  handsome 
Church  of  La  Madonna  del  Galloro,  beneath  which  the  sub- 
structions which  raised  the  Via  Appia  above  the  level  of  the 
plain,  deserve  observation. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
FRASCATI,  TUSCULUM,  AND  COLONNA 

(Trains  leave  Rome  at  11.30  and  12.5,  returning  at  5.40  and  6.78. 
This  gives  time  for  a  pleasant  sight  of  Frascati,  and  for  a  ride  or  v^^alk 
to  Tusculum  and  the  Villa  Mondragone,  or  to  Tusculum  and  Grotta 
Ferrata.  There  is  an  excellent  small  inn  at  Frascati— the  Albergo  di 
Londra — very  clean  and  comfortable.  Donkeys  cost  5  francs  for  the 
whole  day,  or  2|  francs  for  the  half  day;  but  a  distinct  agreement 
must  be  made. ) 

IT  is  only  half-an-hour  by  rail  to  Frascati,  and  the  change 
is  so  complete  and  reviving,  that  it  is  strange  more  so- 
journers at  Rome  do  not  take  advantage  of  it.  Only  one 
excursion  to  Frascati  is  generally  made  during  a  Roman 
winter,  which  gives  little  time  where  there  is  so  much  to  be 
seen. 

Even  the  railway  journey  is  most  delightful  and  charac- 
teristic. The  train  runs  close  to  the  aqueducts,  the  Pao- 
line  first,  and  then  the  ruined  Claudian.  As  we  pass  out- 
side the  Porta  Furba,  the  artificial  sepulchral  mound,  called 
Monte  de  Grano,  is  seen  on  the  left,  and  then  the  vast  ruins 
called  Setie  Basse,  belonging  to  a  suburban  villa  of  imperial 
date,*  and,  as  the  light  streams  through  their  ruined  windows, 

•  The  carriage-road  to  Frascati  passes  close  to  botl\  of  these,  and  then  by  the 
beautiful  stone-pines  on  the  farm  of  Torre  Nucva  belonging  to  Prince  Borghese, 
where  archaeologists  place  Papinia,  the  villa  of  Attilius  Regulus. 

VOL.  I.  7 


98  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

forming  a  beautiful  foreground  to  the  delicate  distances  of 
mountain  and  plam. 

As  we  approach  nearer,  Colonna  is  seen  on  the  left  upon 
its  knoll,  then  Monte  Porzio,  and  beneath  it  the  site  of  the 
Lake  Regillus.  When  the  lights  and  shadows  are  favourable, 
the  difference  between  the  two  craters  of  this  volcanic  chain 
of  hills  now  becomes  strikingly  evident. 

"  The  Alban  hills  form  a  totally  distinct  group,  consisting  of  two 
principal  extinct  volcanic  craters,  somewhat  resembling  in  their  relation 
to  each  other  the  great  Neapolitan  craters  of  Vesuvius  and  Somma. 
One  of  them  lies  within  the  embrace  of  the  other,  just  as  Vesuvius  lies 
half  enclosed  by  Monte  Somma.  The  walls  of  the  outer  Alban  crater 
ai-e  of  peperino,  while  those  of  the  inner  are  basaltic.  Both  are 
broken  away  on  the  northern  side  towards  Grotta  Ferrata  and  Marino, 
but  on  the  southern  side  they  are  tolerably  perfect. 

"The  outer  crescent-shaped  crater  beginning  from  Frascati  extends  to 
Monte  Porzio  and  Rocca  Priora,  and  then  curves  round  by  Monte  Al- 
gido,  Monte  Ariano,  and  Monte  Artemisio.  The  inner  crescent  in- 
cludes the  height  of  Monte  Cavo,  and  surrounds  the  flat  meadows  known 
by  the  name  of  Campo  d'Annibale.  Besides  these  two  principal  cra- 
ters, the  ages  of  which  are  probably  as  distinct  as  those  of  Vesuvius  and 
Somma,  there  are  traces  of  at  least  four  others  to  be  found  in  the  lakes 
of  Castel  Gandolfo,  commonly  called  the  Alban  lake,  and  of  Nemi, 
and  in  the  two  small  cliff- encircled  valleys  of  the  Vallis  Aricina  and 
Larghetto." — Burn^  The  Roman  Campagna. 

The  effect  of  the  Campagna  here,  as  everywhere,  is  quite 
different  upon  different  minds.  The  French  almost  always 
find  it  as  depressing  as  the  English  do  captivating  and  ex- 
hilarating. 

"  Frascati  est  a  six  lieues  de  Rome,  sur  les  monts  Tusculans,  petite 
chaine  volcanique  qui  fait  partie  du  systeme  des  montagnes  du  Latium. 
C'est  encore  la  Campagne  de  Rome,  mais  c'est  la  fin  de  I'horrible  desert 
qui  environne  la  capitale  du  monde  catholique.  Ici  la  terre  cesse  d'etre 
inculte  et  la  fievre  s'arrete.  II  faut  monter  pendant  une  demi-heure,  au 
pas  des  chevaux,  pour  atteindre  la  ligne  d'air  pur  qui  circule  au-dessus 
de  la  region  empestee  de  la  plaine  immense ;  mais  cet  air  pur  est  moins 
du  a  I'elevation  du  sol  qu'a  la  culture  de  la  terre  et  a  I'ecoulement  des 


FRASCATI.  99 

eaux,  car  Tivoli,  plus  haut  perche  du  double  que  Frascati,  n'est  pas  a 
I'abri  de  I'influence  maudite. 

*'  Aux  approches  de  ces  petites  montagnes,  quand  on  a  laisse  derriere 
soi  les  longs  aqueducs  mines  et  trois  ou  quatre  lieues  de  terrains  oiv- 
dules,  sans  caractere  et  sans  etendue  pour  le  regard,  on  traverse  de  nou- 
veau  une  partie  de  la  plaine  dont  le  nivellement  absolu  presente  enfin  un 
aspect  particulier  assez  grandiose.  C'est  un  lac  de  pale  verdure  qui 
s'etend  sur  la  gauche  jusqu'au  pied  du  massif  du  mont  Gennaro.  Au 
baisser  du  soleil,  quand  I'herbe  fine  et  maigre  de  ce  gigantesque  patur- 
age  est  un  peu  echauffee  par  I'or  du  couchant  et  nuancee  par  les  om- 
bres portees  des  montagnes,  le  sentiment  de  la  grandeur  se  revele.  Les 
petits  accidents  perdus  dans  ce  cadre  immense,  les  troupeaux  et  les 
chiens,  seuls  bergers  qui,  en  de  certaines  parties  de  la  steppe,  osent  braver 
la  malaria  toute  la  journee,  se  dessinent  et  s'enlevent  en  couleur  avec 
une  nettete  comparable  k  celle  des  objets  lointains  sur  la  mer.  Au 
fond  de  cette  nappe  de  verdure,  si  unie  que  I'on  a  peine  a  se  rend  re 
compte  de  son  etendue,  la  base  des  montagnes  semble  nager  dans  une 
brume  mouvante,  tandis  que  leurs  sommets  se  dressent  immobiles  et  nets 
dans  le  ciel." — George  Sand,  La  Daniella, 

Beyond  Ciampino,  the  railroad  ascends  out  of  the  Cani- 
pagna  into  the  land  of  com  and  olives.  Masses  of  pink 
nectarine  and  almond-trees  bloom  in  spring  amid  the  green. 
On  the  right,  we  pass  the  great  ruined  castle  of  Borghetio, 
which  belonged  to  the  Savellis  in  the  loth  century.  At  the 
station,  an  open  omnibus  with  awnings  (fare,  50  centesimi), 
and  carriages,  are  waiting  to  save  travellers  the  mile  of  steep 
ascent  to  the  town.  Here,  passing  near  the  Villa  Sora,  once 
the  residence  of  Gregory  XIII.  (1752-85),  and  skirting  the 
wall  of  the  Villa  Torlonia,  we  are  set  down  in  the  noisy  little 
piazza  before  the  cathedral,  and  are  at  once  surrounded  by 
donkey  boys  vociferating  upon  the  merits  of  their  respective 
animals. 

The  cathedral  (S.  Pietro)  only  dates  from  1700,  but  we 
must  enter  it  to  visit  the  monument  (near  the  door),  which 
Cardinal  York  put  up  to  his  brother  Prince  Charles  Edward, 
who  died  Jan,  31,  1788.     It  is  inscribed  : — 


loo  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  Hie  situs  est  Carolus  Odoardus  cui  Pater  Jacobus  III.  Rex  Anglioe, 
Scotiae,  Franciae,  Hibernioe,  Primus  Natorum,  patemi  Juris  et  regioe 
dignitatis  successor  et  hseres,  qui  domicilio  sibi  Romae  delecto  Comes 
Albaniensis  dictus  est. 

"  Vixit  Annos  LVII.  et  mensem  ;  decessit  in  pace,  pridie  Kal.  Feb. 
Anno  MDCCLXXXVII." 

There  is  an  older  cathedral,  Duomo  Vecchio,  now  called 
SS.  Sebastiano  e  Rocco,  chiefly  of  the  14th  century,  and  near 
it  a  fountain  erected  in  1480  by  Cardinal  d'Estouteville,  the 
French  Ambassador.  The  streets  are  dirty  and  ugly ;  but 
the  little  town  is  important  as  being  the  centre  of  the  villas 
which  give  Frascati  all  its  charm.  Most  of  these  date 
only  from  the  17  th  century,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Villa  Mondragone,  the  buildings  are  seldom  remarkable,  but 
they  are  situated  amid  glorious  groves  of  old  trees,  often 
relics  of  a  natural  forest,  and  amid  these  are  grand  old 
fountains  and  water-falls,  which,  though  artificial,  have  been 
long  since  adopted  by  Nature  as  her  own,  while  from  the 
terraces  the  views  over  the  Campagna  are  of  ever-varying 
loveliness.  In  many  of  these  villas,  far  too  large  for  any 
single  occupants,  vast  airy  suites  of  apartments  may  be  hired 
for  the  summer  villeggiatura,  and,  though  scantily  furnished, 
are  a  delightful  retreat  during  the  hot  season. 

'*  At  Frascati  and  Albano  there  are  good  lodgings  to  be  had.  Noble 
old  villas  may  be  hired  on  the  Alban  slopes  for  a  small  rent,  with 
gardens  going  to  ruin,  but  beautifully  picturesque — old  fountains  and 
water-works  painted  with  moss,  and  decorated  with  maiden  hair,  vines, 
and  flowers — shady  groves  where  nightingales  sing  all  the  day — avenues 
of  lopped  ilexes  that,  standing  on  either  side  like  great  chandeliers, 
weave  together  their  branches  overhead  into  a  dense  roof — and  long 
paths  of  tall,  polished  laurel,  where  you  may  walk  in  shadow  at  morning 
and  evening.  The  air  here  is  not,  however,  '  above  suspicion  ; '  and  one 
must  be  careful  at  night-fall  lest  the  fever  prowling  round  the  damp 
alleys  seize  you  as  its  prey.  The  views  from  these  villas  are  truly  exqui- 
site.    Before  you  lies  the  undulating  plain  of  the  Campagna,  with  every 


FRASCATL  ici 

hue  and  changing  tone  of  colour ;  far  off  against  the  horizon  flashes  the 
level  hne  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  the  grand  Sabine  hills  rise  all  along  on 
the  west,  with  Soracte  lifting  from  the  rolling  inland  sea  at  their  base  ; 
and  in  the  distance  swells  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's.  The  splendours  of 
sunset  as  they  stream  over  this  landscape  are  indescribable,  and  in  the 
noon  the  sunshine  seems  to  mesmerise  it  into  a  magic  sleep." — Story's 
Roba  di  Roma. 

"  Les  collines  Tusculanes  ne  sont,  d'ici  a  leur  point  le  plus  eleve, 
qu'un  immense  jardin  partage  entre  quatre  on  cinq  families  princieres. 
Et  quels  jardins  !  celui  de  Piccolomini  ne  compte  plus.  Vendu  \  des 
bourgeois  qui  font  argent  de  leur  propriete,  il  n'a  de  beau  que  ce  que 
Ton  n'a  pu  lui  oter.  Mais  la  villa  Falconieri,  qui  le  borne  i  Test,  et  la 
villa  Aldobrandini,  qui  le  borne  au  couchant,  la  villa  Conti,  qui  touche 
a  cette  derniere  ;  plus  haut,  la  Ruffinella,  et,  en  revenant  vers  Test,  la 
Taverna  et  Mondragone,  tout  cela  se  tient  et  communique,  si  bien  que 
j'en  aurais  pour  trois  heures  \  vous  decrire  ces  lieux  enchantes,  ces  futaies 
monstrueuses,  ces  fontaines,  ces  bosquets  et  ces  escarpements  semes  de 
ruines  romaines  et  pelasgiques ;  ces  ravins  de  lierre,  de  liseron,  et  de 
vigne  sauvage,  oil  pendent  des  restes  de  temples,  et  oil  tombent  des  eaux 
cristallines.  Je  renonce  au  detail  qui  viendra  peut-etre  par  le  menu  ;  je 
ne  peux  que  vous  donner  une  notion  de  I'ensemble. 

'•  Le  caractere  general-  est  de  deux  sortes  :  celui  de  I'ancien  gout 
italien,  et  celui  de  la  nature  locale  qui  a  repris  le  dessus,  grace  k  Tin- 
difference  ou  k  la  decadence  pecuniaire  des  maitres  de  ces  folks  et  ma- 
gnifiques  residences.  Si  vous  voulez  une  exacte  description  de  ces 
residences,  telles  qu'elles  etaient  encore  il  y  a  cent  ans,  vous  la  trouverez 
dans  les  spirituelles  lettres  du  president  de  Brosses,  un  des  hommes 
qui,  malgre  son  apparente  legerete,  a  le  mieux  vu  I'Ttalie  de  son  temps. 
II  s'est  beaucoup  moque  des  jeux  d'eaux  et  girandes,  des  statues  gro- 
tesques et  des  concerts  hydrauliques  de  ces  villegiatures  de  Frescati.  II 
a  eu  raison.  Lorsqu'il  voyait  depenser  des  sommes  folles  et  des  efforts 
d'imagination  puerile  pour  creer  ces  choses  insensees,  il  s'indignait  de 
cette  decadence  du  goflt  dans  le  pays  de  I'art,  et  il  riait  au  nez  de  tous 
ces  vilains  faunes  et  de  toutes  ces  grima9antes  naiades  outrageusement 
meles  aux  debris  de  la  statuaire  antique.  II  appelait  cela  gater  I'art  et 
la  nature  a  grands  frais  d' argent  et  de  betise,  et  je  m' imagine  que,  dans 
ce  temps-la,  quand  tons  ces  fetiches  etaient  encore  frais,  quand  ces 
eaux  sifflaient  dans  ces  fliltes,  que  les  arbres  etaient  tailles  en  poires,  les 
gazons  bien  tondus  et  les  allees  bien  tracees,  un  homme  de  sens  et  de 
liberte  comme  lui  devait,  h.  bqn  droit,  s'indigner  et  se  moquer. 

"Maiss'il  revenait  ici,  il  y  trouvcrait  un  grand  et  heureux  change- 
ment :  les  Pans  n'ont  plus  de  fliate,  les  nymphes  n'ont  plus  de  nez.     A 


102  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

beaucoup  de  dieux  badins,  il  manque  davantage  encore,  puisqu'il  rien 
resle  qu'une  jambe  sur  le  socle.  Le  reste  git»au  fond  des  bassins.  Les 
eaux  ne  soufflent  plus  dans  des  tuyaux  d'orgue ;  elles  bondissent  encore 
dans  des  conques  de  marbre  et  le  long  des  grandes  girandes  ;  mais  elles 
y  chantent  de  leur  voix  naturelle.  Les  rocailles  se  'Sont  tapissees  de 
vert.es  chevelures,  qui  les  rendent  a  la  verite.  Les  arbres  ont  repris  leur 
essor  puissant  sous  un  climat  energique,  et  sont  devenus  des  colosses 
encore  jeunes  et  pleins  de  sante.  Ceux  qui  sont  morts  ont  derange  la 
symetrie  des  allees ;  les  parterres  se  sont  remplis  de  foUes  herbes ;  les 
f raises  et  les  violettes  ont  trace  des  arabesques  aux  contours  des  tapis 
verts ;  la  mousse  a  mis  du  velours  sur  les  mosaiques  criardes :  tout  a 
jjris  un  air  de  revoke,  un  cachet  d' abandon,  un  ton  de  mine  et  un 
chant  de  solitude. 

"Et  maintenant,  ces  grands  pares  jetes  aux  flancs  des  montagnes 
forment,  dans  leurs  plis  verdoyants,  des  vallees  de  Tempe,  oil  les  ruines 
rococo  et  les  ruines  antiques  devorees  par  la  meme  vegetation  parasite 
donnent  a  la  victoire  de  la  nature  un  air  de  gaiete  extraordinaire. 
Comme  en  somme,  les  palais  sont  d'une  coquetterie  princiere  ou  d'un 
gout  charmant ;  que  ces  jardins,  surcharges  de  details  puerils,  avaient 
ete  dessin^s  avec  beaucoup  d' intelligence  sur  les  ondulations  gracieuses 
du  sol,  et  plantes  avec  un  vrai  sentiment  de  la  beaute  des  sites  ;  enfin, 
comme  les  sources  abondantes  y  ontete  habilement  dirigees  pour  assainir 
et  yivifier  cette  region  bocagere,  il  ne  serait  pas  rigoureusement  vrai  de 
dire  que  la  nature  y  a  ete  mutilee  et  insultee.  Les  brimboriens  fragiles 
y  tombent  en  poussiere  ;  mais  les  longues  terrasses  d'oii  Ton  dominait 
I'immense  tableau  de  la  plaine,  des  montagnes  et  de  la  mer  ;  les  gigan- 
tesques  perrons  de  marbre  et  de  lave  qui  soutiennent  les  ressauts  du 
terrain,  de  qui  ont,  certes,  un  grand  caractere;  les  allees  couvertes  qui 
rendent  ces  vieux  Edens  praticables  en  tout  temps  ;  enfin  tout  ce  qui, 
travail  elegant,  utile  et  solide,  a  survecu  au  caprice  de  la  mode,  ajoute 
au  charme  de  ces  solitudes,  et  sert  a  conserver,  comme  dans  des  sanctu- 
aires,  les  heureuses  combinaisons  de  la  nature  et  la  monumentale  beaute 
des  ombrages.  II  suffit  de  voir,  autour  des  collines  de  Frascati,  I'aride 
nudite  des  monts  Tusculans,  ou  I'humidite  malsaine  des  vallees,  pour 
reconnaitre  que  I'art  est  parfois  bien  necessaire  a  I'oeuvre  de  la  creation." 
— George  Sand^  La  Daniella. 

Nothing  can  describe  the  charm  of  the  villa  life  at  Fras- 
cati,— the  freshness  of  the  never-ceasing  fountains,  the  deep 
shade  of  the  thick  woods,  the  splendour  of  the  summer 
fruits,  and,  above  all,  the  changing  glories  of  the  view,  which 


VILLA   TOR LO .VIA,  FR AS C A  77.  103 

is  unlike  any  other  in  the  world,  over  the  vast  plain,  in 
which  the  world's  capitol  seems  almost  to  be  lost  in  the 
immensity  and  luminousness  of  the  pink  haze. 

Opposite  to  the  gate  of  the  town,  opens  that  of  the  VU/a 
Torlonia — the  Pincio  of  Frascati — and  the  great  resort  of 
its  inhabitants.  The  villa  itself  is  not  worth  visiting,  but  the 
view  from  its  terrace  is  most  beautiful,  and  a  grand  water- 
fall tumbles  down  a  steep  behind  the  house,  through  the 
magnificent  ilex-groves.  This  type  of  villa  is  well  pourtrayed 
by  Miss  Edwards. 

•'  We  went  down  a  broad  walk,  wide  enough  for  a  carriage  drive,  and 
completely  roofed  in  by  thick  trees.  Weeds  grew  unheeded  in  the  gravel, 
and  last  year's  leaves  lay  thick  on  the  ground.  Here  and  there,  in 
the  green  shade,  stood  a  stone  seat  brown  with  mosses  ;  or  a  broken  urn  ; 
or  a  tiny  antique  altar,  rifled  from  a  tomb— and  presently  we  reached  a 
space  somewhat  more  open  than  the  rest,  with  a  shapeless  mass  of  reticu- 
lated brick-work  and  a  low  arch  guarded  by  two  grim  lions,  in  the 
midst.  Here  the  leaves  had  drifted  more  deeply,  and  the  weeds  had 
grown  more  rankly  than  elsewhere  ;  and  a  faint  oppressive  perfume 
sickened  on  the  air.  We  pushed  our  way  through  the  grass  and  bram- 
bles, and  looked  down  into  the  darkness  of  that  cavernous  archway.  A 
clinging  damp  lay  on  the  old  marble  lions,  and  on  the  leaves  and 
blossoms  of  the  trailing  shrubs  that  overgrew  them.  A  green  lizard 
darted  by  on  a  fragment  of  broken  wall.  A  squirrel  ran  up  the  shaft  of 
a  stately  stone  pine  that  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins. 

"  At  length  we  emerged  upon  a  terrace  that  bounded  the  gardens  on 
this  side.  The  Campagna  and  the  hills  lay  spread  before  us  in  the 
burning  sun-set,  and  a  shining  zone  of  sea  bounded  the  horizon.  Long 
shadows  streamed  across  the  marble  pavement,  and  patches  of  brilliant 
light  pierced  through  the  carved  interstices  of  the  broken  balcony.  A 
little  fountain  dripped  wearily  in  the  midst,  surmounted  by  a  headless 
Triton,  and  choked  with  water-weeds  ;  whilst  all  along  the  parapet, 
with  many  a  gap,  the  statues  of  the  Caesars  stood  between  us  and  the 
sun. " — Barbara  s  History. 

Below  the  Villa  Torlonia,  the  Villa  Fallavicini^  with  an 
ilex-crested  terrace,  projects  over  the  plain.  Above  it,  is  the 
Villa  Aldobrandini^  standing  grandly  upon  a  succession  of 


104  ^^  ^-^  NEAR  ROME. 

terraces,  designed   by  Giacomo  della   Porta,  and  finished 


Palazzo  Aldobrandini,  Frascati. 

by  Giovanni  Fontana  for  Cardinal  Pietro  Aldobrandini, 
nephew  of  Clement  VIII.  The  villa  is  adorned  internally 
with  frescoes  by  Cav.  d'Arpmo.  Behind  it  a  succession  of 
waterfalls  tumble  through  a  glorious  old  ilex-grove,  into  a 
circle  of  fantastic  statues.  The  scene  may  once  have  been 
ridiculous,  but  Nature  has  now  made  it  most  beautiful. 

"At  the  Villa  Aldobrandini,  or  Belvidere,  we  were  introduced  to 
the  most  multifarious  collection  of  monsters  I  ever  hope  to  behold. 
Giants,  centaurs,  fauns,  cyclops,  wild  beasts,  and  gods,  blew,  bellowed, 
and  squeaked,  without  mercy  or  intermission ;  and  horns,  pan's-pipes, 
organs,  and  trumpets,  set  up  their  combined  notes  in  such  a  dissonant 
chorus,  that  we  were  fain  to  fly  before  them  ;  when  the  strains  that 
suddenly  burst  forth  from  Apollo  and  the  Nine  Muses,  who  were  in  a 
place  apart,  compelled  us  to  stop  our  ears,  and  face  about  again  in  the 
opposite  direction. 

' '  When  this  horrible  din  was  over,  we  were  carried  back  to  admire 
ine  now  silent  Apollo  and  the  Muses, — a  set  of  painted  wooden  dolls, 
seated  on  a  little  mossy  Parnassus,  in  a  summer-house, — a  plaything  we 
should  have  been  almost  ashamed  to  have  made  even  for  the  amusement 
of  children.     All  these  creatures,  in  the  mean  time,  were  spouting  out 


VILLA  RUFINELLA,  FRASCATL  105 

water.  The  lions  and  tigers,  however,  contrary  to  their  usual  habits,  did 
nothing  else;  and  the  'great  globe  itself,'  which  Atlas  was  bearing  on 
his  shoulders,  instead  of  'the  solid  earth,'  proved  a  mere  aqueous  ball, 
and  was  overwhelmed  in  a  second  deluge." — Eaton's  Rome. 


Those  who  are  not  good  walkers,  should  engage  donkeys 
for  the  excursion  to  Tusculum,  to  which  a  steep  ascent  leads 
from  the  piazza  of  the  town,  between  the  walls  of  the  villas 
Aldobrandini  and  Falconieri.  Just  beyond  the  latter,  an 
inscription  marks  the  humble  retreat  of  the  learned  Cardinal 
Baronius.  A  steep  hill  leads  to  the  Convent  of  the  Cap- 
puccini,  but  our  path  passes  through  the  shady  and  delightful 
walks  of  the  Villa  Rtifi?iella,  which  is  now  the  property  of 
Prince  Lancellotti,  having  formerly  belonged  to  the  Buona- 
partes. The  casino  was  built  by  Vanvitelli.  The  chapel 
contains  monuments  of  the  Buonaparte  family.  During 
the  residence  of  Lucien  Buonaparte  here  (Nov.  18 18), 
this  villa  was  the  scene  of  one  of  the  boldest  acts  of  brigand- 
age known  in  the  Papal  States.  A  party  of  robbers, 
who  had  their  rendezvous  at  Tusculum,  first  seized  the 
old  priest  of  the  family  as  he  was  out  walking,  and 
having  plundered  and  stripped  him,  bound  him  hand  and 
foot  As  they  surmised,  when  the  dinner-hour  arrived, 
and  the  priest  was  missing,  a  servant  was  sent  out  in 
search  of  him,  and  left  the  door  open,  through  which 
five  bandits  entered,  and  attacking  the  servants  they  met, 
forced  them  to  silence  by  threats  of  instant  death.  One 
maid-servant,  however,  escaped,  and  gave  warning  to  the 
party  in  the  dining-room,  who  all  had  time  to  hide  them- 
selves, except  the  Prince's  secretary,  who  had  already  left 
the  room  to  discover  the  cause  of  the  noise,  and  who  was 
carried  off,  together  with  the  butler,  and  a  facchino.     The 


io6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

old  priest  meanwhile  contrived  to  escape  and  conceal  him- 
self in  some  straw. 

The  next  day  the  facchino  was  sent  back  to  treat  with 
the  Prince,  and  to  say  that  unless  he  sent  a  ransom  of  4000 
crowns  the  prisoners  would  be  immediately  put  to  death. 
He  sent  2000  and  an  order  on  his  banker  for  the  remainder. 
The  brigands,  greatly  irritated,  returned  the  order  torn  up 
with  a  demand  for  4000  crowns  more,  and  with  this  the 
Prince  was  forced  to  comply  in  order  to  preserve  the  lives 
of  his  attendants.     The  brigands  escaped  scot  free  ! 

A  tomb  which  is  passed  at  the  entrance  of  Frascati  towards 
tlie  Villa  Rufinella  is  said  to  be  that  of  Lucullus,  who  is 
known  to  have  had  a  villa  here.  This  stood  near  the  Villa  of 
Cicero,  who  was  accustomed  to  borrow  books  and  fetch  them 
with  his  own  hand  {De  Fin.  iii.  2)  from  the  library  of  his 
friend.  The  schoHast  on  Horace  describes  the  Villa  of 
Cicero  as  being  "  ad  latera  superiora  "  of  the  hill,  and  its 
site  is  generally  believed  to  have  been  that  now  occupied  by 
the  Villa  Rufinella,  and  that  the  Casino  stands  on  the  site 
of  his  Academica,  which  had  shady  walks  like  those  of 
Plato's  Garden — forefathers  of  the  walks  which  we  still  see. 

The  Tusculan  Disputations  of  Cicero  take  their  name 
from  this  beloved  villa  of  his,  which  he  bitterly  complained 
of  the  Roman  consuls  valuing  at  only  "  quingentis  millibus  " 
— between  ;£"4ooo  and  ;£"5ooo.  A  complete  picture  of  the 
villa  may  be  derived  from  the  many  allusions  to  it  in  the 
works  of  Cicero,  thus  : — 

'*  We  learn  that  it  contained  two  gymnasia  {Div.  i.  j.),  an  upper  one 
called  the  Lycseum,  in  which,  like  Aristotle,  he  was  accustomed  to  walk 
and  dispute  in  the  morning  ( Tusc.  Disp.  ii.  3),  and  to  which  a  library 
was  attached  [Div.  ii.  3) ;  and  a  lower  one  called  the  Academy  ( Tusc. 
Disp.  ii.  3).     Both  were  adorned  with  beautiful  statues  in  marble  and 


TUSCULUM.  107 

bronze  {Ep.  ad  Att.  \.  8,  9,  10).  The  villa  likewise  contained  a  little 
a*^riam  (atriolum,  Jb.  i.  \o  ad  Quint.  Fr.  iii.  l),  a  small  portico  with 
exedria  (a^  Fam.  vii.  23),  a  bath  {lb.  xiv.  20),  a  covered  promenade 
(*tecta  ambulatiuncula,'  ad  Att.  xiii.  29),  and  a  horologium  {ad  Fam. 
xvi.  18).  The  villa,  like  the  town  and  neighbourhood,  was  supplied  by 
the  Aqua  Crabra  {De  Leg.  Agr.  iii.  31)." — Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and 
Roman  Geography. 

In  his  Essay  on  Old  Age,  Cicero  describes  the  delights  of 

country  life  as  enjoyed  in  a  villa  of  this  kind. 

**  Where  the  master  of  the  house  is  a  good  and  careful  manager,  his 
wine-cellar,  his  oil-stores,  his  larder,  are  always  well  stocked  ;  there  is 
a  fulness  throughout  the  whole  establishment ;  pigs,  kids,  lambs, 
poultry,  milk,  cheese,  honey, — all  are  in  abundance.  The  produce  of 
the  garden  is  always  equal,  as  our  country-folk  say,  to  a  second  course. 
And  all  these  good  things  acquire  a  double  relish  from  the  voluntary 
labours  of  fowling  and  the  chase.  What  need  to  dwell  upon  the  charm 
of  the  green  fields,  the  well-ordered  plantations,  the  beauty  of  the  vine- 
yards and  olive-groves  ?  In  short,  nothing  can  be  more  luxuriant  in  pro- 
duce, or  more  delightful  to  the  eye,  than  a  well-cultivated  estate." — 
Trans,  by  Lucas  Collins. 

Leaving  the  Villa  Rufinella  by  shady  avenues  of  laurel 
and  laurestinus,  the  path  to  Tusculum  emerges  on  the  hill- 
side, where,  between  banks  perfectly  carpeted  with  anemones 
and  violets  in  spring,  a  street  paved  with  polygonal  blocks 
has  been  laid  bare.  On  the  left  are  remains  of  the  small 
Amphitheatre ;  all  the  seats  have  perished,  and  it  is  only 
recognizable  by  its  form.  Beyond,  also  on  the  left,  are  the 
ruins  of  a  villa,  called,  without  authority,  Scuola  di  Cicerone. 

The  path  leads  directly  up  to  the  most  important  of  the 
ruins,  the  Theatre^  which  was  excavated  in  1839  by  Maria 
Christina,  Queen-dowager  of  Sardinia.  With  the  exception 
of  the  walls  of  the  sccna^  the  lower  walls  are  almost  perfect, 
and  the  fifteen  rows  of  seats  in  the  lower  circle  {cavea)  re- 
main intact,  though  the  upper  rows  have  perished.  The 
spectators,  facing  the  west,  had  a  magnificent  view  over  the 


loS  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

plains  of  Latium,  with  Rome  in  the  distance.     Close  to  the 


Theatre  of  Tusculum. 

Theatre  are  the  remains  of  a  piscina,  and  the  fountain  sup- 
plied from  it. 

"  Je  parvins  au  sommet  de  la  montagne,  en  m'egarant  dans  de  su- 
perbes  bosquets.  Puis,  je  me  trouvai  sur  un  long  plateau  dont  le  versant 
est  aussi  nu  et  aussi  desert  que  celui  que  Ton  monte  depuis  Frascati  est 
ombrage  et  habite.  Devant  moi  se  presentait  une  petite  voie  antique, 
bordee  d'arbres,  qui,  suivant  a  plat  la  crete  douce  de  la  montagne,  de- 
vait  me  conduire  a  Tusculum. 

"  J'arrivai  bientot  en  vue  d'un  petit  cirque  de  fin  gazon,  borde  de 
vestiges  de  constructions  romaines.  Un  peu  au-dessous,  je  penetrai,  a 
travers  les  ronces,  dans  la  galerie  souterraine  par  laquelle,  au  moyen  de 
trappes,  les  animaux  feroces,  destines  aux  combats,  surgissaient  tout  a 
coup  dans  I'arene,  aux  yeux  des  spectateurs  impatients.  Ce  cirque  n'a 
de  remarquable  que  sa  situation.  Assis  sur  le  roc,  au  bout  le  plus  eleve 
d'une  etroite  gorge  en  pente,  qui  s'en  va  rejoindre,  en  sauts  gracieux  et 
verdoyants,  les  collines  plus  basses  de  Frascati  et  en  suite  la  plaine,  il 
est  la  comme  un  beau  siege  de  gazon,  installe  pour  offrir  au  voyageur  le 
plaisir  de  contempler  a  I'aise  cette  triste  vue  de  la  Campagne  de  Rome, 
qui  devient  magnifique,  encadree  ainsi.  Le  remplement  de  la  colline 
autour  du  cirque  le  preserve  des  vents  maritimes.  Ce  serait  un  emplace- 
ment delicieux  pour  une  villa  d'hiver. 

"  J'y  pris  quelques  moments  de  repos.  Pour  la  premiere  fois  depuis 
que  j'ai  quitte  Genes,  il  faisait  un  temps  clair.  Les  montagnes  loin- 
taines  etaient  d'un  ton  superbe,  et  Rome  se  voyait  distinctement  au  fond 
de  la  plaine.  Je  fus  etonne  de  I'emplacement  enorme  qu'elle  occupe, 
et  de  I'importance  du  dome  de  Saint-Pierre,  qui,  tout  le  monde  vous  I'a 
dit,  ne  fait  pas  grand  effet,  vu  de  plus  pres. 

"En  quittant  cet  amphitheatre,  je  suivis,  dans  le  desert,  un  chemin 
jonche  de  mosaiques  des  marbres  les  plus  precieux,  de  verroteries,  de 
lessons  de  vases  etrusques  et  de  gravats  de  platre  encore  revetus  des  tons 
de  la  fresque  antique.     Je  ramassai  un  assez  beau  fragment  de  terre 


TUSCULUM. 


109 


cuite,  representant  le  combat  d'un  lion  et  d'un  dragon.  Je  dedaignai  de 
remplir  mes  poches  d'autres  debris  ;  il  y  en  avait  trop  pour  me  tenter. 
La  colline  n'est  qu'un  amas  de  ces  debris,  et  la  pluie  qui  lave  les  che- 
mins  en  met  chaque  jour  a  nu  de  nouvelles  couches.  Ce  sol,  quoique 
souvent  fouille  en  divers  endroits,  doit  cacher  encore  des  richesses. 

**Le  plateau  superieur  est  une  vaste  bruyere.  C'etait  jadis,  proba- 
blement,  le  beau  quartier  de  la  ville,  car  cette  steppe  est  semee  de  dalles 
ou  de  moellons  de  marbre  blanc.  Le  chemin  etait,  sans  doute,  la  belle 
rue  patricienne.  Des  fondations  de  maisons  des  deux  cotes  attestent 
qu'elle  etait  etroite,  comme  toutes  celles  des  villes  antiques.  Au  bout 
de  cette  plaine,  le  chemin  aboutit  au  theatre.  II  est  petit,  mais  d'une 
jolie  coupe  romaine.  L'orchestre,  les  degres  de  I'hemicycle  sont  entiers, 
ainsi  que  la  base  des  constructions  de  la  scene  et  les  marches  laterales 
pour  y  monter.  L'avant-scene  et  les  voies  de  degagement  necessaires  i 
Taction  scenique  sont  sur  place  et  suffisamment  indiquees  par  leurs 
bases,  pour  faire  comprendre  I'usage  de  ces  theatres,  la  place  des  choeurs 
et  meme  celle  du  decor. 

**  Derriere  le  theatre  est  une  piscine  parfaitement  entiere  sauf  la  voute. 
On  est  Ik  en  pleine  ville  romaine.  On  n'a  plus  qu'a  atteindre  le  faite 
de  la  montagne  pour  trouver  la  partie  pelasgique,  la  ville  de  Telegone, 
fils  d'Ulysse  et  de  Circe. 

"Lk,  ces  mines  prennent  un  autre  caractere,  un  autre  interet.  C'est 
la  cite  primitive,  c'est-a-dire  la  citadelle  escarpee  ;  repaire  d'une  bande 
d'aventuriers,  berceau  d'une  societe  future.  Les  temples  et  les  tom- 
beaux  des  ancetres  y  etaient  sous  la  protection  du  fort.  La  montagne, 
semee  de  bases  de  colonnes  qui  indiquent  I'emplacement  des  edifices 
sacres,  et  bordee  de  blocs  bruts  dont  I'arrangement  dessine  encore  des 
ramparts,  des  potemes,  et  des  portes,  s'incline  rapidement  vers  d'au- 
tres gorges  bientot  relevees  en  coUines  et  en  montagnes  plus  hautes.  Ce 
sont  les  monts  Albains.  Dans  une  de  ces  prairies  humides  oil  paissent 
les  troupeaux,  etait  le  lac  Regille,  on  ne  sait  pas  ou  precisement.  Le 
sort  de  la  jeune  Rome,  aux  prises  avec  celui  des  antiques  nationalites  du 
Latium,  a  ete  decide  Ik,  quelque  part,  dans  ces  agrestes  solitudes. 
Soixante-dix  mille  hommes  ont  combattu  pour  Hre  ou  rCetre  pas,  et  le 
destin  de  Rome,  qui  en  ce  terrible  jour,  ecrasa  les  forces  de  trente 
cites  latines,  a  passe  sur  I'Agro  Tusculan  comme  I'orage,  dont  la  trace 
est  vite  effacee  par  I'herbe  et  les  fleurs  nouvelles." — George  Sandy 
La  Daniella. 

Behind  the  theatre  rises  the  steep  hill  which  was  once 

crowned  by  the  Arx  of  Tusculum,  which  was  of  great  strength 

in  early  times.     It  was  besieged  by  the  -^quians  in  B.C. 


no  DAYS  NEAR  ROME.     ' 

457,  and  only  taken  when  the  garrison  were  starved  out 
In  B.C.  374  it  was  successfully  defended  against  the  Latins. 
Dionysius  mentions  the  advantage  it  received  from  its  lofty 
position,  which  enabled  its  defenders  to  see  a  Roman  army 
as  it  issued  from  the  Porta  Latina.  The  view  is  indeed 
most  beautiful,  over  plain  and  mountains,  the  foreground 
formed  by  the  remains  of 

— "  the  white  streets  of  Tusculum, 
The  proudest  town  of  all,"  * 

scattered  sparsely  amongst  the  furze  and  thorn-bushes,  but 
the  ruins  which  now  exist  belong  chiefly  not  to  early  times 
but  to  the  mediaeval  fortress  of  the  Dukes  of  Tusculum. 

Including  the  Arx,  the  town  of  Tusculum  was  about  li 
mile  in  circuit.  The  Roman  poets  ascribe  the  foundation 
of  the  city  to  Telegonus,  the  son  of  Circe  and  Ulysses. 

**  Inter  Aricinos  Albanaque  tempora  constant, 
Factaque  Telegoni  moenia  celsa  manu," 

Ovid.  Fast.  iii.  91. 
**  Et  jam  Telegoni,  jam  moenia  Tiburis  udi 
Stabant,  Argolicse  quod  posuere  man  us." 

Ovid.  Fast.  iv.  7 1. 
**  At  Cato,  tum  prima  sparsus  lanugine  malas, 
Quod  peperere  decus  Circaeo  Tuscula  dorso 
Moenia,  Laertae  quondam  regnata  nepoti, 
Cunctantem  impellebat  equum." 

Sil.  Ital.  vii.  691. 
**  Linquens  Telegoni  pulsatos  ariete  muros, 
Haud  dignam  inter  tanta  moram." 

Sil.  Ital.  xii.  535.+ 

Tusculum  was  remarkable  for  the  steadiness  of  its  friend- 
ship for  Rome,  which  was  only  interrupted  in  B.C.  379,  when 
in  consequence  of  a  number  of   Tusculans   having  been 

*  Macaulay,  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome. 

t  See  also  Horace,  Epode  i.  29,  and  Statius,  Silv.  i.  3,  83. 


TUSCULUM.  Ill 

found  amongst  the  prisoners  made  in  the  Volscian  cam- 
paign, war  was  declared,  and  Camillas  was  sent  against  the 
city. 

•'  But  the  Tusculans  would  not  accept  this  declaration  of  hostilities, 
and  opposed  the  Roman  arms  in  a  manner  that  has  scarcely  been  paral- 
leled before  or  since.  When  Camillus  entered  their  territory  he  found 
the  peasants  engaged  in  their  usual  avocations  ;  provisions  of  all  sorts 
were  offered  to  his  army,  the  gates  of  the  town  were  standing  open  ;  and 
as  the  legions  defiled  through  the  streets  in  all  the  panoply  of  war,  the 
citizens  within,  like  the  countrymen  without,  were  seen  intent  upon 
their  daily  business,  the  schools  resounded  with  the  hum  of  pupils,  and 
not  the  slightest  token  of  hostile  preparation  could  be  discerned.  Then 
Camillus  invited  the  Tusculan  dictator  to  Rome.  When  he  appeared 
be.ore  the  senate  in  the  Curia  Hostilia,  not  only  were  the  existing 
treaties  with  Tusculum  confirmed,  but  the  Roman  franchise -was  shortly 
afterwards  bestowed  upon  it,  a  privilege  at  that  time  rarely  conferred." 
— Smithes  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Roman  Geography. 

'*  In  the  times  of  the  Latin  League,  from  the  fall  of  Alba  to  the  battle 
of  the  Lake  Regillus,  Tusculum  was  the  most  prominent  town  in  Latium. 
It  suffered,  like  the  other  towns  in  Latium,  a  complete  eclipse  during 
the  late.  Republic  and  the  Imperial  times ;  but  in  the  ninth,  tenth, 
eleventh,  and  twelfth  centuries,  under  the  Counts  of  Tusculum,  it  be- 
came again  a  place  of  great  importance  and  power,  no  less  than  seven 
popes  of  the  house  of  Tusculum  having  sat  in  the  chair  of  S.  Peter. 
The  final  destruction  of  the  city  is  placed  by  Nibby,  following  the  ac- 
count given  in  the  records  of  the  Podestk  of  Reggio,  in  1191,  on  the  ist 
of  April,  in  which  year  the  city  was  given  up  to  the  Romans  by  the 
Emperor  Henry  VI.,  and,  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  German  garrison, 
was  sacked  and  razed  to  the  ground.  Those  of  the  inhabitants  who 
escaped  collected  round  the  Church  of  S.  Sebastian,  at  the  foot  of  the 
hill,  in  the  district  called  Frascati,  whence  the  town  of  Frascati  took 
its  origin  and  name." — Burriy  The  Roman  Campagna. 

**  We  had  wandered  long  among  those  hills, 
Watching  the  white  goats  on  precipitous  heights, 
Half-hid  among  the  bushes,  or  their  young 
Tending  new-yeaned  :  and  we  had  paused  to  hear 
The  deep-toned  music  of  the  convent  bells. 
And  wound  through  many  a  verdant  forest  path, 
Gathering  the  crocus  and  anemone. 
With  that  fresh  gladness,  which  when  flowers  are  new 


112  DAYS  NEAR  ROME, 

In  the  first  spring,  they  bring  us,  till  at  last 

We  issued  out  upon  an  eminence, 

Commanding  prospect  large  on  every  side  ; 

But  largest  where  the  world's  great  city  lay, 

Whose  features,  undistinguishable  now, 

Allowed  no  recognition,  save  where  the  eye 

Could  mark  the  white  front  of  the  Lateran 

Facing  this  way,  or  rested  on  the  dome, 

The  broad  stupendous  dome,  high  over  all. 

And  as  a  sea  around  an  island's  roots 

Spreads,  so  the  level  champaign  round  the  town 

Stretched  every  way,  a  level  plain,  and  green 

With  the  new  vegetation  of  the  spring ; 

Nor  by  the  summer  ardours  scorched  as  yet, 

Which  shot  from  southern  suns,  too  soon  dry  up 

The  beauty  and  the  freshness  of  the  plains  ; 

But  to  the  right  the  ridge  of  Apennine, 

Its  higher  farther  summits  all  snow-crowned, 

Rose,  with  white  clouds  above  them,  as  might  seem 

Another  range  of  more  aerial  hills. 

These  things  were  at  a  distance,  but  more  near 
And  at  our  feet  signs  of  the  tide  of  life, 
That  once  was  here,  and  now  had  ebbed  away — 
Pavements  entire,  without  one  stone  displaced, 
Where  yet  there  had  not  rolled  a  chariot-wheel 
For  many  hundred  years ;  rich  cornices, 
Elaborate  friezes  of  rare  workmanship. 
And  broken  shafts  of  columns,  that  along 
,  This  highway  side  lay  prone ;  vaults  that  were  rooms, 
And  hollowed  from  the  turf,  and  cased  in  stone, 
Seats  and  gradations  of  a  theatre, 
Which  emptied  of  its  population  now 
Shall  never  be  refilled  :  and  all  these  things. 
Memorials  of  the  busy  life  of  man. 
Or  of  his  ample  means  for  pomp  and  pride, 
Scattered  among  the  solitary  hills. 
And  lying  open  to  the  sun  and  showers, 
And  only  visited  at  intervals 
By  wandering  herds,  or  pilgrims  like  ourselves 
From  distant  lands ;  with  now  no  signs  of  life, 
Save  where  the  goldfinch  built  his  shallow  nest 


CAMALDOLL  nj 

'Mid  the  low  bushes,  or  where  timidly 
The  rapid  lizard  glanced  between  the  stones — 
All  saying  that  the  fashion  of  this  world 
Passes  away  ;  that  not  Philosophy 
Nor  Eloquence  can  guard  their  dearest  haunts 
From  the  rude  touch  of  desecrating  Time. 
What  marvel,  when  the  very  fanes  of  God, 
The  outward  temples  of  the  Holy  One, 
Claim  no  exemption  from  the  general  doom. 
But  lie  in  ruinous  heaps ;  when  nothing  stands, 
Nor  may  endure  to  the  end,  except  alone 
The  spiritual  temple  built  with  living  stones  ?  " 

Archbishop  Trench. 

Descending  from  the  Arx,  a  path  to  the  right  leads 
through  woods  full  of  flowers  to  the  Camaidoli,  but  nobody- 
can  pass  the  cross  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  the  con- 
vent stands,  upon  pain  of  excommunication.  Here  Cardinal 
Passionei  lived  in  retirement,  and  occupied  himself  by  col- 
lecting eight  hundred  inscriptions  found  amongst  the  ruins 
of  Tusculum. 

The  whole  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Camaldoli  were  car- 
ried off  during  an  audacious  outbreak  of  brigandage  in  the 
reign  of  Pius  VII.,  but  escaped  during  a  skirmish  with  the 
Papal  troops  sent  to  their  rescue.  Since  then  the  buildings 
have  been  surrounded  with  defensive  walls  with  loopholes 
for  the  discharge  of  fire-arms.  The  aspect  of  the  place 
is  beautifully  described  by  Cardinal  Wiseman. 

"The  English  college  possesses  a  country  house,  deliciously  situated 
in  the  village  of  Monte-Porzio.  Like  most  villages  in  the  Tusculan 
territory,  this  crowns  a  knoll,  which  in  this  instance  looks  as  if  it  had 
been  kneaded  up  from  the  valleys  beneath  it,  so  round,  so  shapely,  so 
richly  bosoming  does  it  swell  upwards ;  and  so  luxuriously  clothed  is  it 
with  the  three  gifts  whereby  'men  are  multiplied  '  (Ps.  iv.  8),  thai  the 
-village  and  its  church  seem  not  to  sit  upon  a  rocky  summit,  but  to  be 
half  sunk  into  the  lap  of  the  olive,  the  vine,  and  the  waving  corn,  that 
reach  the  very  houses.  While  the  entrance  and  front  of  this  villa  are 
VOL.    I.  8 


114  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

upon  the  regular  streets  of  the  little  town,  the  garden  side  stands  upon 
the  very  verge  of  the  hill-top  ;  and  the  view^,  after  plunging  at  once  to 
the  depths  of  the  valley,  along  which  runs  a  shady  road,  rises  up  a  gentle 
acclivity,  vine  and  olive  clad,  above  which  is  clasped  a  belt  of  stately 
chestnuts,  the  bread-tree  of  the  Italian  peasant,  and  thence  springs  a 
round  craggy  mound,  looking  stem  and  defiant,  like  what  it  was — the 
citadel  of  Tusculum.  Upon  its  rocky  front  the  English  students  have 
planted  a  huge  cross. 

"Such  is  the  view  which  presents  itself  immediately  opposite  to  the 
spectator,  if  leaning  over  the  low  parapet  of  the  English  garden.  Just 
where  the  vineyards  touch  the  woods,  as  if  to  adorn  both,  there  lies 
nestling  what  you  would  take  to  be  a  very  neat  and  regular  village.  A 
row  of  houses,  equidistant  and  symmetrical,  united  by  a  continuous 
dwarf  wall,  and  a  church  with  its  towers  in  the  midst,  all  of  dazzling 
whiteness,  offer  no  other  suggestion.  The  sight  would  certainly  de- 
ceive one,  but  not  so  the  ears.  There  is  a  bell  that  knows  no  sleeping. 
The  peasant  hears  it  as  he  rises  at  day-break  to  proceed  to  his  early 
toil ;  the  vine-dresser  may  direct  every  pause  for  refreshment  by  its  un- 
failing regularity  through  the  day ;  the  horseman  returning  home  at 
evening  uncovers  himself  as  it  rings  forth  the  '  Ave  ; '  and  the  muleteer 
singing  on  the  first  of  his  string  of  mules,  carrying  wine  to  Rome,  at 
midnight  is  glad  to  catch  its  solemn  peal,  as  it  mingles  with  the  tinkle 
of  his  own  drowsy  bells.  Such  an  unceasing  call  to  prayer  and  praise 
can  only  be  answered,  not  by  monks  nor  by  friars,  but  by  anchorites. 

"  And  to  such  does  this  sweet  abode  belong.  A  nearer  approach  does 
not  belie  the  distant  aspect.  It  is  as  neat,  as  regular,  as  clean,  and 
tranquil  as  it  looks.  It  is  truly  a  village  divided  by  streets,  in  each  of 
which  are  rows  of  houses  exactly  symmetrical.  A  small  sitting-room,  a 
sleeping  cell,  a  chapel  completely  fitted  up,  in  case  of  illness,  and  a  wood 
and  lumber  room,  compose  the  cottage.  •  This  is  approached  by  a  garden, 
which  the  occupant  tills,  but  only  for  flowers,  assisted  by  his  own  foun- 
tain abundantly  supplied.  While  singing  None  in  the  choir,  the  day's 
meal  is  deposited  in  a  little  locker  within  the  door  of  the  cell,  for  each 
one's  solitary  refection.  On  a  few  great  festivals  they  dine  together ; 
but  not  even  the  Pope,  at  his  frequent  visits,  has  meat  placed  before  him. 
Everything,  as  has  been  said,  is  scrupulously  clean.  The  houses  inside 
and  out,  the  well-furnished  library,  the  stranger's  apartments  (for  hospi- 
tality is  freely  given),  and  still  more  the  church,  are  faultless  in  this 
respect.  And  so  are  the  venerable  men  who  stand  in  the  choir,  and 
whose  noble  voices  sustain  the  church's  magnificent  psalmody  with  un- 
wavering slowness  of  intonation.  They  are  clad  in  white  from  head  to 
foot,  their  thick  woollen  drapery  falling  in  large  folds ;  and  the  shavea 


VILLA  MONDRAGONE.  lij 

head,  but  flowing  beard,  the  calm  features,  the  cast-down  eyes,  and 
often  venerable  aspect,  make  every  one  a  picture,  as  solemn  as  Zurbaran 
ever  painted,  but  without  the  sternness  which  he  sometimes  imparts  to 
his  recluses.  They  pass  out  of  the  church,  to  return  home,  all  silent  and 
unnoticing ;  but  the  guest-master  will  tell  you  who  they  are.  I  remem- 
ber but  a  few.  This  is  a  native  of  Turin,  who  was  a  general  in  Napo- 
leon's army,  fought  many  battles,  and  has  hung  up  his  sword  beside  the 
altar,  to  take  down  in  its  place  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  fight  the 
good  fight  within.  The  next  is  an  eminent  musician,  who  has  discovered 
the  hoUowness  of  human  applause,  and  has  unstrung  his  earthly  harp, 
and  taken  up  the  '  lyre  of  the  Levite,'  to  join  his  strains  to  those  of  angels. 
Another  comes  'curved  like  a  bridge's  arch,'  as  Dante  says,  and  leaning 
on  a  younger  arm,  as  he  totters  forward,  one  whose  years  are  ninety,  of 
which  seventy  have  been  spent  in  seclusion,  except  a  few  of  dispersion, 
but  in  peace  :  for  he  refuses  any  relaxation  from  his  duties.  Then  fol- 
lows a  fourth,  belonging  to  one  of  the  noblest  Roman  families,  who  yet 
prefers  his  cottage  and  his  lentil  to  the  palace  and  the  banquet. " — Life 
of  Pius  VI L 

Below  the  Camaldoli  we  reach  the  gates  of  the  Villa 
Mondragone^  the  Queen  of  Frascati  villas.  It  belongs  to  the 
family  of  Borghese,  but  is  used  as  a  Jesuit  College.  The 
casino,  built,  from  designs  of  Vansanzio,  by  Cardinal  Altemps 
in  the  reign  of  Gregory  XIII.,  is  exceedingly  magnificent,  but 
still  more  so  is  the  view  from  the  vast  and  stately  terrace  in 
front,  adorned  with  a  grand  fountain  and  tall-  columns. 

"  Imaginez-vous  un  chateau  quia  trois  cent  soixante  quatorze  fen^- 
tres,  un  ch&teau  complique  comme  ceux  d'Anne  RadclifTe,  un  monde 
d'enigmes  a  debrouiller,  un  enchainement  de  surprises,  vm  reve  de 
Piran^se. 

*•  Ce  palais  fut  bati  au  seizifeme  si^cle.  On  y  entre  par  un  vaste  corps 
de  logis,  sorte  de  caserne  destinee  ^  la  suite  armee.  Lorsque,  plus 
tard,  le  pape  Paul  V.  en  fit  une  simple  villegiature,  il  relia  un  des 
cotes  de  ce  corps  de  garde  au  palais  par  une  longue  galerie,  de  plein- 
pied  avec  la  cour  interieure,  dont  les  arcades  elegantes  s'ouvraient,  au 
couchant,  sur  un  escarpement  assez  considerable,  et  laissent  aujourd'hui 
passer  le  vent  et  la  pluie.  Les  vodtes  suintent,  la  fresque  est  devenue 
une  croute  des  stalactites  bizarrees ;  des  ronces  et  des  orties  poussent 
dans  le  pave  disjoint ;  les  deux  etages  superposes  au-dessus  de  cette 
galerie  s'ecroulent  tranquillement.     II  n'y  a  plus  de  toiture  ;  les  entable- 


ii6  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

ments  du  dernier  etage  se  penchent  et  s'appaissent  aux  risques  et  perils 
des  passants,  quand  passants  il  y  a,  autour  de  cette  thebaide. 

"Cependant,  la  villa  Mondragone,  restee  dans  la  famille  Borghese,  a 
laquelle  appartenait  Paul  V.,  etait  encore  une  demeure  spleridide,  il  y  a 
une  cinquantaine  d'annees,  et  elle  revete  aujourd'hui  un  caractere  de  de- 
solation riante,  tout  a  fait  particulier  k  ces  ruines  prematurees.  C'est 
durant  nos  guerres  d'ltalie,  au  commencement  du  siecle,  que  les  Autri- 
chiens  I'ont  ravagee,  bombardee,  et  pillee.  II  en  est  resulte  ce  qui  arrive 
toujours  en  ce  pays-ci  apres  une  secousse  politique  :  le  degout  et  I'aban- 
don.  Pourtant  la  majeure  partie  du  corps  de  logis  principal,  la  parte- 
media,  est  assez  saine  pour  qu'en  supprimant  les  dependances  inutiles, 
on  puisse  encore  trouver  de  quoi  restaurer  une  delicieuse  villegiature.'''' 
— George  Sand,  La  Daniella. 

Joining  the  grounds  of  the  Mondragone  are  those  of  the 
Villa  Taverna,  built  in  the  i6th  century,  from  designs  of 
Girolamo  Rainaldi.  It  was  much  used,  until  the  change 
of  Government,  as  a  summer  residence  by  the  Borgheses. 

A  beautiful  road  along  the  ridge  of  the  hill-side  leads  back 
to  Frascati,  or  we  may  go  on  to  the  right  towards  Colonna, 
about  four  miles  distant. 

Not  far  below  the  Villa  Mondragone  is  the  volcanic  Lake 
cf  Cornufelle.  There  is  no  longer  any  water  here,  but  its  bed 
is  a  crater  about  half  a  mile  in  diameter,  and  is  evidently  the 
place  described  by  Pliny,  where  there  was  a  grove  of 
beeches  (probably  horn-beams — carpini)  dedicated  to  Diana, 
one  of  which  was  so  much  admired  by  Passienus,  the  orator 
and  consul,  that  he  used  to  embrace  it,  sleep  under  it,  and 
pour  wine  upon  it.  This  is  the  spot  described  in  Macaulay's 
Lays,  as  that 

** — where,  by  Lake  Regillus, 

Under  the  Porcian  height, 
All  in  the  lands  of  Tusculum, 
Was  fought  the  glorious  fight." 

And  Arnold  says  : — 

**  The  lake  of  Regillus  is  now  a  small  and  weedy  pool  surrounded  by 


THE  LAKE  RE  GILL  US.  1 1 7 

crater-like  banks,  and  with  much  lava  or  basalt  about  it,  situated  at 
some  height  above  the  plain,  on  the  right  hand  of  the  road  as  you  de- 
scend from  the  high  ground  under  La  Colonna  (Labicum),  to  the  ordin- 
ary level  of  the  Cam^agna,  in  going  to  Rome." — Hist,  of  Rome,  i.  120. 
"The  Battle  of  the  J^ke  Regillus,  as  described  by  Livy,  is  not  an  en- 
gagement between  two  armies  :  it  is  a  conflict  of  heroes,  like  those  in 
the  Iliad.  All  the  leaders  encounter  hand  to  hand ;  and  by  them  the 
victory  is  thrown  now  into  one  scale,  now  into  the  other ;  while  the 
troops  fight  without  any  effect.  The  dictator  Postumius  wounds  King 
Tarquinius,  who  at  the  first  onset  advances  to  meet  him.  T.  ^butius, 
the  master  of  the  horse,  wounds  the  Latin  dictator  :  but  he  himself  too 
is  disabled,  and  forced  to.  quit  the  field.  Mamilius,  only  aroused  by  his 
hurt,  leads  the  cohort  of  the  Roman  emigrants  to  the  charge,  and  breaks 
the  front  lines  of  the  enemy ;  this  glory  the  Roman  lays  could  not  allow 
to  any  but  fellow-citizens,  under  whatever  banner  they  might  be  fight- 
ing. M.  Valerius,  sumamed  Maximus,  falls  as  he  is  checking  their 
progress.  Publius  and  Marcus,  the  sons  of  Publicola,  meet  their  death 
in  rescuing  the  body  of  their  uncle,  but  the  dictator  with  his  cohort 
avenges  them  all,  repulses  the  emigrants,  and  puts  them  to  flight.  In 
vain  does  Mamilius  strive  to  retrieve  the  day  :  he  is  slain  by  T.  Hermin- 
ius,  the  comrade  of  Codes.  Herminius  again  is  pierced  through  with 
a  javelin,  while  stripping  the  Latin  general  of  his  arms.  At  length  the 
Roman  knights,  fighting  on  foot  before  the  standards,  decided  the 
victory :  then  they  mounted  their  horses,  and  routed  the  yielding  foe. 
During  the  battle  the  dictator  had  vowed  a  temple  to  the  Dioscuri. 
Two  gigantic  youths  on  white  horses  were  seen  fighting  in  the  van  : 
and  from  its  being  said,  immediately  after  the  mention  of  the  vow,  that 
the  dictator  promised  rewards  to  the  first  two  who  should  scale  the  wall 
of  the  enemy's  camp,  I  surmise  that  the  poem  related,  nobody  challenged 
these  prizes,  because  the  way  for  the  legions  had  been  opened  by  the 
Tyndarids.  The  pursuit  was  not  yet  over,  when  the  two  deities  ap- 
peared at  Rome,  covered  with  dust  and  blood.  They  washed  themselves 
and  their  arms  in  the  fountain  of  Juturna  beside  the  temple  of  Vesta, 
and  announced  the  events  of  the  day  to  the  people  assembled  in  the 
Comitium.  On  the  other  side  of  the  fountain  the  promised  temple  was 
built.  The  print  of  a  horse's  hoof  in  the  basalt  on  the  field  of  battle 
remained  to  attest  the  presence  of  the  heavenly  combatants. " — Nkbiihi's 
Hist,  of  Rome,  i.  557. 

On  the  right  is  the  hill  of  Mofite  Porzio^  said  to  have  de- 
rived its  name  from  the  Porcian  Villa  of  Cato  the  younger. 
It  is  crowned  by  a  large  village,  built  by  Gregory  XIII. 


Ii8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

(Buoncompagni),  whose  arms  adorn  its  gateway.  The 
church  was  consecrated  by  Cardinal  York  in  1766. 

Beyond  this,  on  the  right,  is  Monte  Compatri^  a  large  vil- 
lage, cresting  another  hill,  and  belonging  to  the  Borgheses. 
Further  on  is  Rocca  Friora,  now  identified  with  Corbio,  the 
first  place  attacked  by  the  Latin  confederates  in  behalf  of 
Tarquin,  who,  when  they  had  expelled  the  garrison,  hence 
ravaged  all  the  surrounding  country. 

Rocca  Prior  a  stands  high  up  on  the  Monte  Algido,  the  second 

of  the  heights  of  which  the  Alban  Hills  are  composed.     On 

one  of  its  peaks  are  remains  which  are  referred  to  a  temple 

of  Diana  mentioned  by  Horace. 

"Quaeque  Aventinum  tenet  Algidumque, 
Quindecim  Diana  preces  virorum 
Curet." 

Carm.  Sac.  69. 

The  plain  which  separated  the  Mons  Algidus  from  the 

heights  near  Tusculumwas  frequently  a  battle-field.     In  B.C. 

458    Cincinnatus    gained    here  his  great  victory  over  the 

.^quians  under  Cloelius  Gracchus ;  and  here,  in  B.C.  428, 

Postumius  Tubertus  conquered  the  combined  armies  of  the 

^quians  and  Volscians. 

"  Scilicet  hie  olim  Volscos  ^quosque  fugatos 
Viderat  in  campis,  Algida  terra,  tuis." 

Ovid.  Fast.  vi.  721. 

Horace  mentions  the  cold  climate  of  Algidus  : — 
"Gelido  prominet  Algido." 

Carm.  i.  21. 
'Nivali  pascitur  Algido." 


And  its  black  woods  : — 

" Nigrae  feraci  frondis  in  Algido." 


in.  23. 


IV.  4- 


COLONNA.  .  •         "9 

Silius  Italicus,  however,  speaks  of  the  pleasures  of  a  re- 
sidence here  : — 

"     .  .  Nee  ameena  retentant 
Algida." 

xii.  536. 

On  the  left  we  now  reach  an  insulated  hill  crowned  by  the 
picturesque  little  mediaeval  town  of  Colonna,  for  seven 
centuries  the  stronghold  of  the  great  family  of  that  name, 
but  now  belonging  to  Prince  Rospigliosi. 

Colonna  occupies  the  site  of  Labicum,  which,  according 
to  Virgil,  existed  before  the  foundation  of  Rome,  for  he  re- 
presents its  warriors  as  joining  the  army  of  Turnus  : — 

'*  Auruncseque  manus,  Rutuli,  veteresque  Sicani,       " 
Et  Sacranae  acies,  et  picti  scuta  Labici." 

/En.  vii.  795. 

Hannibal  approached  Rome  from  hence  : — 

**  Jamque  adeo  est  campos  ingressus  et  arva  Labici, 
Linquens  Telegoni  pulsates  ariete  muros. " 

Sil.  Hal.  xii.  534. 

Silius  alludes  to  the  fertility  of  its  lands  : — 

**.  .  .  atque  habiles  ad  aratra  Labici." 

viii.  368. 

Through  the  Middle  Ages,  Colonna  was  the  scene  of  end- 
less sieges,  and  consequently  perhaps  suffered  more  than 
any  other  town  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome. 

"The  private  story  of  the  Colonna  and  Ursini  is  an  essential  part  of 
the  annals  of  modern  Rome.  The  name  and  arms  of  Colonna  have 
been  the  theme  of  much  doubtful  etymology  j  nor  have  the  orators  and 
antiquarians  overlooked  either  Trajan's  Pillar,  or  the  columns  of  Her- 
cules, or  the  pillar  of  Christ's  flagellation,  or  the  luminous  column 
that  guided  the  Israelites  in  the  desert.  Their  first  historical 
appearance  in  the  year  1104,  attests  the  power  and  antiquity,  while 
it  explains  the  simple  meaning,  of  the  name.  By  the  usuq^ation  of 
Cavi,  the  Colonna  provoked  the  arms  of  Paschal  11^;   but  they  law- 


120  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

fully  held,  in  the  Campagna  of  Rome,  the  hereditary  fiefs  of  Zagarolo 
and  Colonna  ;  and  the  latter  of  these  towns  was  probably  adorned  with 
some  lofty  pillar,  the  relic  of  a  villa  or  temple.  They  likewise  possessed 
one  moiety  of  the  neighbouring  city  of  Tusculum  ;  a  strong  presumption 
of  their  descent  from  the  counts  of  Tusculum,  who  in  the  loth  century 
were  the  tyrants  of  the  apostolic  see.  According  to  their  own  and 
the  public  opinion,  the  primitive  and  remote  source  was  derived  from 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine ;  and  the  sovereigns  of  Germany  were  not 
ashamed  of  a  real  or  fabulous  affinity  with  a  noble  race,  which  in  the 
revolutions  of  seven  hundred  years  has  been  often  illustrated  by  merit, 
and  always  by  fortune.  About  the  end  of  the  13th  century,  the  most 
powerful  branch  was  composed  of  an  uncle  and  six  brothers,  all  con- 
spicuous in  arms,  or  in  the  honours  of  the  Church.  Of  these,  Peter  was 
elected  senator  of  Rome,  introduced  to  the  Capitol  in  a  triumphant  car, 
and  hailed  in  some  vain  acclamations  with  the  title  of  Caesar ;  while 
John  and  Stephen  were  declared  Marquis  of  Ancona  and  Count  of 
Romagna  by  Nicholas  IV.,  a  patron  so  partial  to  their  family,  that 
he  has  been  delineated,  in  satirical  portraits,  imprisoned  as  it  were 
in  a  hollow  pillar.  After  his  decease,  their  haughty  behaviour  pro- 
voked the  displeasure  of  the  most  implacable  of  mankind.  The  two 
cardinals,  the  uncle  and  the  nephew,  denied  the  election  of  Boniface 
VIII.  ;  and  the  Colonna  were  oppressed  for  a  moment  by  his  temporal 
and  spiritual  arms.  He  proclaimed  a  crusade  against  his  personal 
enemies ;  their  estates  were  confiscated ;  their  fortresses  on  either  side 
of  the  Tiber  were  besieged  by  the  troops  of  S.  Peter,  and  those  of  the 
rival  nobles  ;  and  after  the  ruin  of  Palestrina  or  Prseneste,  their  princi- 
pal seat,  the  ground  was  marked  with  a  plough-share,  the  emblem  of 
perpetual  desolation.  Degraded,  banished,  proscribed,  the  six  brothers, 
in  disguise  and  danger,  wandered  over  Europe  without  renouncing  the 
hope  of  deliverance  and  revenge.  In  this  double  hope,  the  French 
court  was  their  surest  asylum  ;  they  prompted  and  directed  the  enter- 
prise of  Philip ;  and  I  should  praise  their  magnanimity,  had  they  re- 
spected the  misfortune  and  courage  of  the  captive  tyrant.  His  civil  acts 
were  annulled  by  the  Roman  people,  who  restored  the  honours  and  pos- 
sessions of  the  Colonna ;  and  some  estimate  may  be  formed  of  their 
wealth  by  their  losses,  of  their  losses  by  the  damages  of  one  hundred 
thousand  gold  florins,  which  were  granted  them  against  the  accomplices 
and  heirs  of  the  deceased  pope.  All  the  spiritual  censures  and  dis- 
qualifications were  abolished  by  his  prudent  successors ;  and  the  fortune 
of  the  house  was  more  firmly  established  by  this  transient  hurricane. 
The  boldness  of  Sciarra  Colonna  was  signalized  in  the  captivity  of  Boni- 
ace,  and  long  afterwards  in  the  coronation  of  Lewis  of  Bavaria  j  and  Vf 


FROM  FRASCATI  TO  PALESTRINA.  121 

the  gratitude  of  the  Emperor  the  pillar  in  their  arms  was  encircled  with 
a  royal  crown.  But  the  first  of  the  family  in  fame  and  merit  was  the 
elder  Stephen,  whom  Petrarch  loved  and  esteemed  as  a  hero  superior 
to  his  own  times,  and  not  unworthy  of  ancient  Rome.  Persecution  and 
exile  displayed  to  the  nations  his  abilities  in  peace  and  war  ;  in  his  dis- 
tress, he  was  an  object,  not  of  pity,  but  of  reverence  ;  the  aspect  of 
danger  provoked  him  to  avow  his  name  and  country  :  and  \  hen  he  was 
asked, '  Where  is  now  your  fortress?'  he  laid  his  hand  on  his  heart,  and 
'answered,  *  Here. '  He  supported  with  the  same  virtue  the  return  of 
prosperity  :  and,  till  the  ruin  of  his  declining  age,  the  ancestors,  the 
character,  and  the  children  of  Stephen  Colonna,  exalted  his  dignity  in 
the  Roman  republic  and  at  the  court  of  Avignon." — Gibbon  s  Roman 
Empire^  ch.  Ixix. 

The  ancient  Via  Labicana^  now  the  high  road  to  Naples 
by  Valmontone,  runs  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  upon  which 
Colonna  is  situated. 


An  excellent  new  road  leads  from  Frascati  to  Palestrina, 
passing  for  the  most  part  through  the  remains  of  the  fine 
old  chestnut  forest,  with  which  these  mountain  slopes  were 
once  covered.  The  road  ascends  first  to  Monte  Porzio, 
which  most  picturesquely  crowns  an  olive-clad  hill  with  its 
gaily  painted  houses.  Hence,  by  a  beautiful  terrace,  with 
glorious  views  through  the  vineyards  into  the  Sabina,  we 
climb  up  to  Monte  Compatri,  above  which  stands  the  great 
Convent  of  S.  Silvestro.  We  are  now  high  above  Colonna, 
and  Monte  Porzio  becomes  very  effective  rising  against  the 
faint  distances  of  the  vast  plain  in  which  Rome  is  asleep. 
From  Monte  Compatri  the  new  road  descends,  and  falls 
into  the  high  road  from  Rome  before  reaching  the  Villa 
Doria  at  S.  Cesareo.  On  the  left,  Zagarolo  is  seen,  in  a 
striking  position  at  the  end  of  a  ravine.  We  pass  some 
Roman  tombs  hewn  in  the  rocks  of  the  hollow  way;  the 


122  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

Via  Prenestina  with  its  ancient  paving-blocks  appears  by 
.the  side  of  the  road ;  and,  passing  a  great  Casino  called  // 
Farco  dei  Barberini,  we  reach  the  foot  of  the  hill,  up  which 
Palestrina  clambers,  at  the  inn  of  S.  Rocco. 


CHAPTER  V. 

GROTTA  FERRATA  AND  MARINO." 

(This  is  a  very  pleasant  excursion  from  Rome,  and  may  be  taken 
between  two  trains  from  the  Frascati  station ;  or,  both  Grotta  Ferrata 
and  Marino  may  be  visited  in  driving  from  Frascati  to  Albano.) 

THE  great  castellated  monastery  of  Grotta  Ferrata  is 
only  about  two  miles  from  Frascati  on  the  slopes  of 
the  Alban  hills.  It  is  the  only  Basilian  monastery  in  the 
Papal  States,  and  its  monks  perform  the  service  in  Greek 
according  to  the  Greek  ritual.  The  story  of  its  foundation 
is  that  of  S.  Nilus. 

S.  Nilus  was  a  Calabrian  Greek,  born  near  Tarentum. 
He  did  not  embrace  a  religious  life  till  his  old  age,  when  his 
wife,  to  whom  he  was  tenderly  attached,  was  dead,  and  then 
he  became  a  Greek  monk  of  the  order  of  S.  Basil,  and  soon 
was  elected  abbot  of  his  convent.  Driven  by  the  Saracens 
from  the  east  of  Italy,  he  fled  with  his  brotherhood  to 
Monte  Cassino,  where  the  abbot  received  them  kindly,  and 
appointed  them  a  residence  in  the  neighbourhood.  While 
he  was  here,  Aloare,  widow  of  Pandolfo,  Prince  of  Capua, 
who  had  incited  her  two  sons  to  the  murder  of  their 
cousin,  came  to  S.  Nilus  to  beseech  absolution  for  her  crime. 
He  refused,  unless  she  would  yield  up  one  of  her  sons  to 


124  ^A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


* 


the  family  of  the  murdered  man,  but  she  could  not  make  up 
her  mind  to  the  sacrifice,  upon  which  S.  Nilus  denounced 
her  sin  as  unforgiven  and  foretold  her  punishment.  Shortly 
after,  one  of  the  princes  was  assassinated  in  a  church  by  his 
brother,  who  was  himself  put  to  death  by  order  of  Hugh 
Capet,  King  of  France. 

S.  Nilus  next  took  up  his  abode  at  Rome  in  the  convent 
of  S.  Alexis,  where  he  wrought  many  miracles,  among  others 
the  cure  of  an  epileptic  boy.  Rome  was  at  this  time  dis- 
tracted with  internal  dissensions,  and  had  been  besieged 
by  the  Emperor  Otho  III.,  who  had  persuaded  Crescentius, 
Consul  of  Rome,  by  his  false  promises,  to  deliver  up  S. 
Angelo,  and  had  there  murdered  Mm ;  and,  putting  out  the 
eyes  of  Pope  John  XVI.,  had  set  up  Gregory  V.  in  his 
place.  S.  Nilus  alone  ventured  to  oppose  the  marauders, 
rebuking  them  as  the  enemies  of  God,  and  writing  to  the 
Emperor,  "  Because  ye  have  broken  faith,  and  because  ye 
have  had  no  mercy  for  the  vanquished,  nor  compassion  for 
those  who  had  no  longer  the  power  to  injure  or  resist, 
know  that  God  will  avenge  the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  and 
ye  shall  both  seek  for  mercy  and  shall  not  find  it."  He 
then  fled  to  Gaeta,  and  afterwards  to  a  cave  at  the  spot 
now  called  Grotta  Ferrata. 

Two  years  after,  Gregory  V.  died  miserably,  and  Otho, 
on  his  knees  at  Grotta  Ferrata,  implored  the  intercession  of 
Nilus,  promising  a  rich  endowment  for  his  convent.  But  his 
offers  were  all  sternly  refused  by  the  saint,  who  said  with 
solemnity,  that  he  asked  nothing  from  him  but  that  he  would 
repent  of  his  sins  and  save  his  own  soul.  A  few  weeks  after, 
Otho  was  obliged  to  fly  from  the  people,  and  was  poisoned 
by  the  widow  of  Crescentius.     Nilus  had  betaken  himself  in 


STORY  OF  GROTTA  FERRATA.  125 

1004  to  the  solitudes  of  Grotta  Ferrata  because  of  the  certainty 
of  cdnonization  if  he  remained  at  Gaeta.  Here,  asleep  in  a 
grotto,  he  had  a  dream  of  the  Virgin,  who  commanded  him 
to  build  a  church  on  that  spot,  placing  a  golden  apple  in  the 
foundations,  as  a  pledge  of  her  protection.  Nilus  built  the 
church,  but  first  placed  in  the  grotto,  where  he  had  received 
the  mandate,  a  picture  of  the  Virgin  which  he  had  brought 
with  him  from  Gaeta,  and  guarded  it  with  an  iron  railing, 
which  gave  it  the  name  of  Grotta  Ferrata.  S.  Nilus  died  in 
the  same  year  with  Otho,  commanding  that  his  burial-place 
should  be  concealed,  in  order  that  no  undue  honours  might 
be  paid  to  his  remains ;  but  over  the  cavern  where  he  had 
lived,  his  friend  and  successor  Bartolomeo  began  to  raise 
the  church  and  castellated  convent  of  Grotta  Ferrata,  in 
which,  in  memory  of  the  Greek  Nilus,  the  rule  of  S.  Basil 
should  always  be  followed,  and  mass  celebrated  in  the 
Greek  language.  The  Count  of  Tusculum  protected  the 
work,  which  rose  rapidly,  and  the  church  was  consecrated  by 
John  XIX.,  only  twenty  years  after  the  death  of  its  founder. 
Several  of  the  popes  resided  here,  especially  the  boy  Pope 
Benedict  IX.  (nephew  of  the  Count  of  Tusculum),  who  had 
resigned  the  honours  of  the  Papacy,  of  which  he  was  most 
unworthy,  in  1033,  at  the  entreaty  of  the  first  Abbot,  S.  Bar- 
tholomew. Pope  Julius  II.  (Delia  Rovere)  had  been  Abbot 
here,  and  began  the  buildings  on  which  the  Rovere  oak  may 
still  be  seen.  He,  the  warlike  Pope  who  commanded  at  the 
siege  of  Mirandola,  built,  as  Abbot,  the  picturesque  fortifica- 
tions of  the  monastery.  Benedict  XIV.  ordained  that  the 
Abbot,"  Prior,  and  Fathers  of  Grotta  Ferrata  should  always 
celebrate  in  the  Greek  rite.  The  last  Abbot  Commendator 
was  Cardinal  Gonsalvi,  who  renounced  the  baronial  juris- 


126  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

diction  which  had  hitherto  belonged  to  the  abbots  in  1816. 
Grotta  Ferrata,  at  a  distance,  looks  more  like  a  castle  than 
a  monastery.  It  is  surrounded  by  walls  with  heavy  machico- 
lations and  low  bastion  towers.  Within,  the  greater  part  of 
the  two  courts  have  been  modernized,  but  the  church 
retains  its  campanile  of  the  tenth  century.  In  the  atrium  is 
a  black  cross  supposed  to  mark  the  exact  height  of  our 
Saviour,  and  a  model  of  the  golden  apple  given  by  the 
Virgin  to  S.  Nilus  and  buried  in  the  foundations  of  the 
belfry.  Over  the  western  door  (now  enclosed)  is  the  inscrip- 
tion : — 

o'lKov  Qtov  fieXXovTBQ  ei(r(3aivtiv  irvXriv 
e^io  y'svoiaOe  TrjQ  fiWr^g  tCjv  (ppo^^TiSbJV 
'iv'  evfievCJg  evpoire  rbv  KpiTrjv  tcfut. 

[Ye  who  would  enter  here  the  house  of  God 
Cast  out  the  leaven  of  pride  and  worldly  thought 
That  kindly  ye  may  find  the  Judge  within.] 

Above,  is  a  very  interesting  mosaic  of  1005,  representing 
the  Saviour  between  the  Virgin  and  S.  J.  Baptist,  with  a 
small  standing  figure  supposed  to  represent  the  Abbot  S. 
Bartholomew.  The  doors  are  beautifully  carved.  At  the 
end  of  the  right  aisle  is  a  curious  piece  of  perforated  carving 
found  in  the  Campagna,  and  believed  to  have  belonged 
to  a  screen  between  the  nave  and  choir  through  which  the 
voices  of  the  monks  could  reach  the  congregation :  it  is 
inscribed  with  the  names  ot  the  thirteen  first  abbots.  At 
the  end  of  the  left  aisle  is  the  tomb  of  Pope  Benedict  IX., 
with  the  imperial  eagle  in  mosaic,  and  above  it  two  angels 
with  torches  in  their  hands.  In  the  middle  of  the  floor  is 
an  enormous  dish  of  porphyry  :  it  was  broken  by  the  French 
in  their  attempts  to  remove  it.  Over  the  entrance  of  the 
choir  is  a  second  mosaic,  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  with  the 


CHURCH  OF  GROTTA  FERRATA.  127 

Saviour,  typified  by  the  Lamb,  represented  belou\  not  on  the 
throne.  The  high  altar,  decorated  with  two  angels  of  the 
Bernini  school,  sustains  a  reliquary  of  bronze  with  agate 
pillars,  which  was  intended  for  S.  Peter's,  but,  being  found 
too  small,  was  given  to  Grotta  Ferrata  by  Cardinal  Bar- 
berini. 

From  the  left  aisle  we  enter  the  famous  chapel  of  the 
first  Abbot,  S.  Bartholomew.  It  is  a  parallelogram  with 
a  small  dome  over  the  east  end.  The  wall  on  the  left  is 
occupied  by  the  famous  frescoes  of  S.  Nilus  praying  before 
the  crucifix ;  the  visit  of  Otho  III.  to  S.  Nilus ;  and,  in  the 
choir,  the  healing  of  the  demoniac  by  S.  Nilus.  The  frescoes 
on  the  right  represent  Nilus  and  Bartholomew,  who  by  their 
prayers  avert  a  thunder-storm  from  the  crops  which  hus- 
bandmen are  gathering  in  ;  the  building  of  the  Monastery  ; 
and,  in  the  choir,  the  vision  of  the  Madonna  who  gives  the 
golden  apple.  At  the  sides  of  the  altar  are :  S,  Eustace, 
because  he  was  the  protector  of  the  Famese  family,  and  S. 
Edward,  because  of  the  name  of  the  Cardinal  who  built  the 
chapel.  In  the  dome,  beneath  the  figure  of  the  Almighty, 
are  the  Roman  saints,  Agnese,  Cecilia,  and  Francesca  Ro- 
mana.  All  the  frescoes  are  by  Domenichino.  The  altar- 
piece,  representing  Nilus  and  Bartholomew  with  the  Virgin, 
is  by  Ann.  Caracci.  At  the  west  end  of  the  chapel  is  a 
curious  urn  used  as  a  baptismal  font. 

"About  the  year  1610,  when  Cardinal  Odoardo  Famese  was  Abbot 
of  Grotta  Ferrata,  he  undertook  to  rebuild  a  defaced  and  ruined  chapel, 
which  had  in  very  ancient  times  been  dedicated  to  the  interesting  Greek 
saints  S.  Adrian  and  his  wife  S.  Natalia.  The  chapel  was  accordingly 
restored  with  great  magnificence,  rededicated  to  S.  Nilus  and  his  com- 
panion, S.  Bartolomeo,  who  are  regarded  as  the  two  first  Abbots ;  and 
Domenichino,  then  in  his  twenty-eighth  year,  was  employed  to  represent 


128  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

on  the  wall  some  of  the  most  striking  incidents  connected  with  the 
foundation  of  the  monastery. 

"  The  walls,  in  accordance  with  the  architecture,  are  divided  into  com- 
partments, varying  in  form  and  size.  In  the  first  large  compartment, 
he  has  represented  the  visit  of  Otho  III.  to  S.  Nilus  ;  a  most  dramatic 
composition,  consisting  of  a  vast  number  of  figures.  The  Emperor  has 
just  alighted  from  his  charger,  and  advances  in  a  humble  attitude  to 
claim  the  benediction  of  the  saint.  The  accessories  in  this  grand  pic- 
ture are  wonderful  for  splendour  and  variety,  and  painted  with  consum- 
mate skill.  The  whole  strikes  us  like  a  well-got-up  scene.  The  action 
of  a  spirited  horse,  and  the  two  trumpeters  behind,  are  among  the  most 
admired  parts  of  the  picture.  It  has  always  been  asserted  that  these 
two  trumpeters  express,  in  the  muscles  of  the  face  and  throat,  the  quality 
of  the  sounds  they  give  forth.  This,  when  I  read  the  description, 
appeared  to  me  a  piece  of  fanciful  exaggeration ;  but  it  is  literally  true. 
If  painting  cannot  imitate  the  power  of  sound,  it  has  here  suggested  both 
its  power  and  kind,  so  that  we  seem  to  hear.  Among  the  figures  is  that 
of  a  young  page,  who  holds  the  Emperor's  horse,  and  wears  over  his  light 
flowing  hair  a  blue  cap  with  a  plume  of  white  feathers  ;  according  to 
tradition,  this  is  a  portrait  of  a  beautiful  girl,  with  whom  Domenichino 
fell  violently  in  love  while  he  was  employed  on  the  frescoes.  Bellori 
tells  us  that,  not  only  was  the  young  painter  rejected  by  the  parents  oi 
the  damsel,  but  that  when  the  picture  was  uncovered  and  exhibited, 
and  the  face  recognized  as  that  of  the  young  girl  he  had  loved,  he  was 
obliged  to  fly  from  the  vengeance  of  her  relatives. 

"The  great  composition  on.the  opposite  wall  represents  the  building 
of  the  monastery  after  the  death  of  S.  Nilus  by  his  disciple  and  coad- 
jutor S.  Bartolomeo.  The  master  builder,  or  architect,  presents  the  plan, 
which  S.  Bartolomeo  examines  through  his  spectacles.  A  number  of 
masons  and  workmen  are  busied  in  various  operations,  and  an  antique 
sarcophagus,  which  was  discovered  in  the  foundation,  and  is  now  built 
into  the  wall  of  the  church,  is  seen  in  one  corner ;  in  the  background, 
is  represented  one  of  the  legends  of  the  locality.  It  is  related  that  when 
the  masons  were  raising  a  column,  the  ropes  gave  way,  and  the  column 
v/ould  have  fallen  on  the  heads  of  the  assistants,  had  not  one  of  the 
monks,  full  of  faith,  sustained  the  column  with  his  single  strength. 

"  One  of  the  lesser  compartments  represents  another  legend.  The 
Madonna  appears  in  a  glorious  vision  to  S.  Nilus  and  S.  Bartolomeo  in 
this  very  Grotta  Ferrata,  and  presents  to  them  a  golden  apple,  in  testi- 
mony of  her  desire  that  a  chapel  should  rise  on  this  spot.  The  golden 
apple  was  reverently  buried  in  the  foundation  of  the  belfry,  as  we  now 
bury  coins  and  medals  when  laying  the  foundation  of  a  public  edifice. 


THE  FRESCOES  OF  DOMENICHINO.  129 

"  Opposite  is  the  fresco  which  ranks  as  one  of  the  finest  and  most  ex- 
pressive of  all  Domenichino's  compositions.  A  poor  epileptic  boy  is 
brought  to  S.  Nilus  to  be  healed  ;  the  saint,  after  beseeching  the  Divine 
favour,  dips  his  finger  into  the  oil  of  a  lamp  burning  before  the  altar, 
and  with  it  anoints  the  mouth  of  the  boy,  who  is  instantly  relieved 
from  his  malady.  The  incident  is  simply  and  admirably  told,  and  the 
action  of  the  boy,  so  painfully  tnie,  yet  without  distortion  or  exaggera- 
tion, has  been,  and  I  think  with  reason,  preferred  to  the  epileptic  boy 
in  Raphael's  Transfiguration. 

"  In  a  high,  narrow  compartment,  Domenichino  has  represented  S. 
Nilus  before  a  crucifix:  the  figure  of  our  Saviour  extends  his  arm  in 
benediction  over  the  kneeling  saint,  who  seems  to  feel,  rather  than  per- 
ceive, the  miracle.     This  also  is  beautiful. 

•*  S.  Nilus  having  been  a  Greek  monk,  and  the  convent  connected  with 
the  Greek  order,  we  have  the  Greek  fathers  in  their  proper  habits — 
venerable  figures  pourtrayed  in  niches  round  the  cornice.  The  Greek 
saints,  S.  Adrian  and  S.  Natalia ;  and  the  Roman  saints,  S.  Agnes,  S. 
Cecilia,  and  S.  Francesca,  are  painted  in  medallions. 

*'  A  glance  back  at  the  history  of  S.  Nilus  and  the  origin  of  the 
chapel  will  show  how  significant,  how  appropriate,  and  how  harmonious 
is  this  scheme  of  decoration  in  all  its  parts.  I  know  not  if  the  credit  of 
the  selection  belongs  to  Domenichino  ;  but,  in  point  of  vivacity  of  con- 
ception and  brilliant  execution,  he  never  exceeded  these  frescoes  in  any 
of  his  subsequent  works ;  and  every  visitor  to  Rome  should  make  this 
famous  chapel  a  part  of  his  pilgrimage." — Jamesot^s  Monastic  Orders ^ 
p.  35- 

Grotta  Ferrata  formerly  possessed  the  finest  Greek  library 
in  Italy,  but  its  treasures  were  removed,  partly  to  the  Vatican 
by  Sixtus  V.,  and  partly  to  the  Barberini  collection  by 
Urban  VIII. 

In  the  Palace  of  the  Abbots,  in  Jan.  1824,  died  Cardinal 

Gonsalvi,   the  famous   minister  and  friend  of  Pius  VII., 

having  survived  his  master  only  five  months.     His  body, 

being   opened   after  death,  in  consequence  of  unfounded 

suspicions,   proved   that    he    died    from    entirely    natural 

causes. 

About   3 J   miles   from   Grotta   Ferrata,   on   the  way  to 
VOL.  I.  9 


130  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Albano,  is  the  very  picturesque  mediaeval  town  of  Marino^ 
which  has  been  identified,  from  inscriptions  which  have  been 
found  there,  as  occupying  the  site  of  Castrimonium,  a  town 
fortified  by  Sylla,  and  which  continued  to  be  a  "  municipium  " 
to  the  time  of  Antoninus  Pius.  As,  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
Colonna  was  a  principal  fortress  of  the  family  of  that  name, 
so  Marino  was  the  stronghold  of  the  great  rival  family  of  the 
Orsini,  from  whom,  however,  it  was  wrested  in  the  14th 
century  by  the  Colonnas,  who  built  the  walls  which  still 
remain. 

Beyond  the  town  is  the  beautiful  glen  called  Parco 
Colonna,  once  the  ""  Lucus  Ferentinae,"  which  was  the  meet- 
ing-place of  the  Latin  league  after  the  destruction  of  Alba. 
A  pleasant  walk  leads  up  the  valley  through  the  green  wood 
fresh  with  rushing  streams  and  carpeted  with  flowers,  to  a 
pool  formed  by  several  springs,  with  an  old  statue  and 
remains  of  17th-century  grottoes.  One  of  the  small 
springs  on  the  right  is  pointed  out  as  the  "  Caput  Aquae 
Ferentinae,"  where  Turnus  Herdonius  of  Aricia,  who  had 
inveighed  against  the  pride  of  Tarquinius  Superbus  and 
warned  his  countrymen  against  placing  any  trust  in  him, 
having  been  accused  of  plotting  the  death  of  the  King  and 
condemned  by  the  great  council  of  the  Latins,  was  drowned 
in  the  shallow  water,  being  held  down  by  a  hurdle,  upon 
which  stones  were  piled.* 

*  Livy,  i.  50 — 5a, 


CHAPTER  VL 

VEIL 

(An  excursion  should  be  made  to  Veil  before  the  weather  becomes 
too  hot  for  enjoyment  in  walking  about  its  steep  ravines.  A  sxmny  day 
in  February  is  the  best  time  to  choose.) 

IT  is  a  drive  of  about  an  hour  and  a  half  from  Rome 
to  Veii.  At  first  we  follow  the  Via  Cassia,  one  of  the 
three  roads  which  led  to  Cisalpine  Gaul,  and  which  passed 
through  the  centre  of  Etruria  :  Cicero  says — "  Etruriam 
discriminat  Cassia."  It  is  now  one  of  the  pleasantest 
drives  near  the  city,  with  its  high  upland  views  over 
the  wide  plains  of  the  Campagna  to  the  towns  which 
sparkle  in  the  sun  under  the  rifted  purple  crags  of  the 
Sabina,  or  down  bosky  glades  studded  with  old  cork-trees, 
whose  rich  dark  green  forms  a  charming  contrast  to  the 
burnt  grass  and  poetic  silvery  thistles.  Three  miles  from 
Rome,  on  a  bank  on  the  left  of  the  road,  is  the  fine 
sarcophagus  adorned  with  griffins  in  low  relief,  which  is 
popularly  known  as  Nerds  tomb,  and  is  really  that  of 
Publius  Vibius  Marianus  and  his  wife  Reginia  Maxima. 
Beyond  this,  on  the  right,  is  the  castellated  farm-house  of 
Buon-Ricovero,  picturesquely  situated  with  pine  trees  upon  a 
grassy  knoll. 


132  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

About  lo  miles  from  Rome  we  reach  the  dismal  post- 
house  of  La  Storta,  where,  in  vetturino  days,  horses  were 
changed  for  the  last  time  before  reaching  the  city.  Just 
beyond  this  the  by-road  to  Veii  turns  off  on  the  right.  As 
we  wind  along  the  hill-sides,  we  see  below  us  the  picturesque 
little  mediaeval  town  of  Isola  Farnese. 

"From  La  Storta  it  is  a  mile  and  a  half  to  Isola  by  the  carriage 
road ;  but  the  visitor,  on  horse  or  foot,  may  save  half  a  mile  by  taking 
a  pathway  across  the  downs.  When  Isola  Farnese  comes  into  sight,  let 
him  halt  awhile  to  admire  the  scene.  A  wide  sweep  of  Campagna  lies 
before  him,  in  this  part  broken  into  ravines  or  narrow  glens,  which,  by 
varying  the  lines  of  the  landscape,  redeem  it  from  the  monotony  of  a  pUin, 
and  by  patches  of  wood  relieve  it  of  its  usual  nakedness  and  sterility. 
On  a  steep  cliff,  about  a  mile  distant,  stands  the  village  of  Isola— a 
village  in  fact,  but  in  appearance  a  large  chateau,  with  a  few  out-houses 
around  it.  Behind  it  rises  the  long,  swelling  ground,  which  once  bore 
the  walls,  temples,  and  palaces  of  Veii,  but  is  now  a  bai'e  down,  partly 
fringed  with  wood,  and  without  a  single  habitation  on  its  surface.  At 
a  few  miles  distance  rises  the  conical  tufted  hill  of  Musino,  the  supposed 
scene  of  ancient  rites,  the  Eleusis,  the  Delphi,  it  may  be,  of  Etruria. 
The  eye  is  then  caught  by  a  tree- crested  mound  or  tumulus,  standing  in 
the  plain  beyond  the  site  of  the  city ;  then  it  stretches  away  to  the  triple 
paps  of  the  Monticelli,  and  to  Tivoli,  gleaming  from  the  dark  slopes 
behind ;  and  then  it  rises  and  scans  the  majestic  chain  of  Apennines, 
bounding  the  horizon  with  their  dark-grey  masses,  and  rests  with  delight 
on  La  Leonessa  and  other  well-known  giants  of  the  Sabine  range,  all 
capt  with  snow.  Oh,  the  beauty  of  that  range  !  From  whatever  part 
of  the  Campagna  you  view  it,  it  presents  those  long,  sweeping  outlines, 
those  grand,  towering  crests — not  of  Alpine  abruptness,  but  consistently 
with  the  character  of  the  land,  preserving,  even  when  soaring  highest, 
the  true  Italian  dignity  and  repose— the  otium  cum  dignitate  of  Nature." 
— Dennis'  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of  Etruria. 

The  fortress,  which  clings  more  than  half-dismantled  to 
the  crumbling  tufa-rock,  was  built  by  the  barons  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  was  constantly  taken  and  retaken  in  the 
Orsini  and  Colonna  feuds,  and  was  eventually  ruined  by 
Caesar  Borgia  when  he  took  it  after  a  twelve  days'  siege. 


ISOLA  FARNESE,  133 

Here  we  must  leave  our  carriage  and  find  and  engage  the 


Isola  Farnese. 

custode  who  opens  the  painted  tomb.  A  deep  lane  between 
high  banks  of  tufa  overhung  by  bay  and  ilex,  leads  into  the 
ravine,  where  a  brook  called  Fosso  de'  due  Fossi  (from  the 
two  little  torrents,  Storta  and  Pino,  of  which  it  is  formed) 
tumbles  over  a  steep  rock  into  the  chasm  near  an  old  mill, 
and  rushes  away  down  the  glen  to  join  the  Crimera.  The 
craggy  hill-side  is  covered  with  luxuriant  foliage,  and  snow- 
drifted  with  laurestinus-bloom  in  spring;  the  ground  is 
carpeted  with  violets  and  blue  and  white  wood-anemonies. 
Beyond  the  mill,  where  we  cross  the  brook  upon  stepping- 
stones,  a  small  gateway  of  mediaeval  times,  opening  upon  a 
green  lawn  overhanging  the  chasm,  with  the  castle  of  Isola 
crowning  the  opposite  cliff,  forms  a  subject  dear  to  artists, 
and  many  are  the  picnics  which  meet  on  the  turfy  slope 
under  the  shade  of  the  old  cork-trees. 

From  hence  we  may  begin  our  explorations  of  the  ancient 
city,  and  if  we  are  to  visit  all  its  principal  remains,  it  is  no 
short  or  easy  excursion  which  we  are  going  to  undertake. 
The  ruins  are  widely  scattered,  and  the  labyrinthine  ravines 
formed  by  the  windings  of  the  Crimera  and  the  Fosso  de* 
due  Fossi,  which  almost  surround  the  city  and  meet  beneath 
it,  are  so  bewildering,  that  a  guide  is  necessary.     At  first  it 


134  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

seems  quite  impossible  that  these  woody  valleys,  which  only 
echo  now  to  the  song  of  a  thousand  nightingales,  can  really 
have  been  Veii,  the  city  which  Dionysius  underrates  when 
he  describes  it  as  being  as  large  as  Athens,*  which  Eutropius 
(i.  20)  writes  of  as  "  civitas  antiquissima  Italiae  atque  ditis- 
sima,"  which  was  a  flourishing  State  at  the  time  of  the  founda- 
tion of  Rome,  and  which  once  possessed  so  many  attractions 
that  it  became  a  question  whether  Rome  itself  should  not 
be  abandoned  for  its  sake. 

•*The  city  of  Veil  was  not  inferior  to  Rome  itself  in  buildings,  and 
possessed  a  large  and  fruitful  territory,  partly  mountainous,  and  partly 
in  the  plain.  The  air  was  pure  and  healthy,  the  country  being  free 
from  the  vicinity  of  marshes,  which  produce  a  heavy  atmosphere,  and 
without  any  river  which  might  render  the  morning  air  too  rigid.  Never- 
theless there  was  abundance  of  water,  not  artificially  conducted,  but 
rising  from  natural  springs,  and  good  to  drink." — Dion.  xii.  frag.  21. 

Gradually,  as  we  push  through  the  brushwood,  traces  of 
the  old  walls  may  be  discovered  here  and  there,  and  of  the 
nine  gates  to  which  from  local  circumstances  topographers 
have  assigned  the  imaginary  names  of  Porta  de'  Sette  Pagi, 
Porta  deir  Arce,  Porta  Campana,  Porta  Fidenate,  Porta  di 
Pietra  Pertusa,  Porta  dell'  Are  Muzie,  Porta  Capenate, 
Porta  del  Columbario,  and  Porta  Sutrina. 

A  long  walk  through  the  woods  leads  to  the  Porta 
Capenate^  which  might  easily  pass  unobserved,  so  slight  are 
its  remains.  But  beneath  it  is  the  most  interesting  spot  in 
the  whole  circuit  of  the  city,  the  Ponte  Sodo,  where  the 
Crimera  or  Fosso  di  Formello,  as  it  is  called  here,  forces  its 
way  for  240  yards  through  a  natural(?)  tunnel  over-grown 
with  luxuriant  bay  and  ilex.     It  is  necessary  to  climb  down 

*  The  circuit  of  Veii  was  43  stadia,  that  of  Athens  only  35. 


VEIL  135 

to  the  level  of  the  stream  to  enjoy  the  view  through  the 
dark  recesses  to  the  light  beyond. 

**  It  would  be  easy  to  pass  the  Ponte  Sodo  without  observing  it.  It 
is  called  a  bridge ;  but  is  a  mere  mass  of  rock  bored  for  the  passage  of 
the  stream.  Whether  wholly  or  but  partly  artificial  may  admit  of  dispute. 
It  is,  however,  in  all  probability,  an  Etruscan  excavation — a  tunnel  in 
the  rock,  two  hundred  and  forty  feet  long,  twelve  or  fifteen  wide,  and 
nearly  twenty  high.  From  above  it  is  scarcely  visible.  You  must 
view  it  from  the  banks  of  the  stream.  You  at  first  suspect  it  to  be  of 
natural  formation,  yet  there  is  a  squareness  and  regularity  about  it  which 
prove  it  artificial.  The  steep  cliffs  of  tufa,  yellow,  grey,  or  white,  over- 
hung by  ilex,  ivy,  and  brushwood — the  deep,  dark-mouthed  tunnel  with 
a  ray  of  sunshine,  it  may  be,  gleaming  beyond — the  masses  of  lichen- 
clad  rock,  which  choke  the  stream,  give  it  a  charm  apart  from  its 
antiquity." — Dennis"  Cities  of  Etruria. 

Near  the  Ponte  Sodo  are  remains  of  an  aqueduct  of 
imperial  times,  confirming  the  opinion  that  Veii  had  a 
temporary  revival  during  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  whose  statue, 
with  several  inscriptions  of  his  time,  has  been  found  here. 

'About  a  mile  up  the  stream  from  this,  passing  the  Roman 


Ponte  deir  Isola,  Veii. 

bridge  called  Ponte  Formello^  we  reach  the  tall  Etruscan 
bridge  Ponte  delP  Isola^  which  crosses  the  river  with  an  arch 
twenty-two  feet  wide.  About  the  same  distance  in  the  op- 
posite direction,  descending  the  river,  the  remains  of  a 
ruined  Columbarium  are  seen  in  the  grey  rock  on  the  opposite 


136  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

bank,  and  a  little  further,  on  the  slope  of  the  hill-side  called 
Poggio  Reale,  is  the  Painted  Tomb. 

Before  the  entrance  of  the  tomb,  which  is  sometimes 
known  as  the  Grotta  Campana^  are  the  almost  shapeless 
remains  of  the  stone  lions  which  once  guarded  it.  The 
custode  opens  a  door  in  the  rock  and  admits  one  with  lights 
to  the  interior  of  two  low  vaulted  chambers  hewn  out  of  the 
tufa,  and  they  are  well  worth  seeing.  On  either  side  of  the 
outer  room  are  stone  benches,  on  which,  when  the  tomb  was 
first  opened,  skeletons  were  seen  lying,  but  crumbled  away  in 
a  few  minutes.  With  one  of  these,  who  had  been  a  warrior, 
lay  his  breast-plate,  helmet,  and  spear's-head,  which  still 
remain,  and  all  around  were  the  large  earthen  jars  and  vases 
which  yet  stand  here.  The  walls  are  covered  with  fantastic 
paintings  of  figures,  with  horses,  dogs,  leopards,  and  other 
animals,  all  of  rude  execution,  but  still  fresh  in  form  and 
colour.  The  inner-chamber  is  surrounded  by  a  shelf  still 
laden  with  vases  and  curious  little  cinerary  sarcophagi,  and 
in  its  centre  stood  the  brazier  in  which  perfumes  were  burnt 
to  purify  the  air. 

These  are  the  sights  usually  seen  at  Veii ;  but  if  possible 
another  two  hours  should  be  devoted  to  ascending  the  hill 
of  the  Arx^  called  by  the  natives  Piazza  (TArmi,  which 
may  be  reached  by  a  little  path  winding  through  the  brush- 
wood above  the  Columbarium.  Of  late  years  this  has  been 
decided  to  be  the  citadel  of  Veii,  formerly  supposed  to  have 
occupied  the  rock  of  Isola  Famese,  which  was  separated 
from  the  rest  of  the  city  by  a  deep  glen,  so  that,  had  it  been 
the  citadel,  Camillus  by  its  capture  would  not,  as  Livy  tells 
us,  have  obtained  immediate  possession  of  the  town. 

These  desolate  heights,  now  overgrown  with  thorns  and 


SIEGE  OF  VEIL  137 

thistles,  amongst  which  fragments  of  precious  marbles  and 
alabasters  may  still  be  found  in  abundance,  formed  the 
citadel  whose  fourteen  wars  are  matters  of  history,  and  which, 
having  been  successfully  able  to  resist  the  whole  forces  of 
Rome  during  an  eight  years'  siege,  was  at  last  only  taken  (a.c. 
393)  by  a  stratagem. 

•*It  was  a  time  of  truce  round  the  walls  of  Veii ;  and  many  who 
from  living  so  near  had  known  each  other  before  the  war,  would  often 
fall  into  discourse.  In  this  manner  the  inhabitants  heard  of  the  prodigy 
of  the  (Alban)  lake  :  and  a  soothsayer  was  impelled  by  destiny  to 
scofif  at  the  efforts  of  the  Romans,  the  futility  of  which  was  foretold  in 
the  prophetic  books.  Some  days  after,  a  Roman  centurion  invited  the 
soothsayer  to  come  into  the  plain  between  the  walls  and  the  Roman 
trenches,  to  hear  an  account  of  a  portent  that  had  fallen  out  at  his  house, 
and  to  teach  him  in  what  way  to  appease  the  gods :  the  aruspex  was 
seduced  by  the  reward  promised  him,  and  incautiously  let  himself  be 
led  near  the  Roman  lines.  On  a  sudden  the  stout  centurion  seized  the 
old  man,  and  dragged  him,  an  easy  prey,  into  the  camp.  From  hence 
he  was  carried  to  Rome  before  the  senate ;  where  he  was  forced  by 
threats  to  speak  the  truth,  and,  loudly  bewailing  the  destiny  that  had 
infatuated  him  to  betray  the  secret  of  his  nation,  confessed  that  the  Veien- 
tine  books  of  fate  announced  that,  so  long  as  the  lake  kept  on  overflow- 
ing, Veii  could  not  be  taken,  and  that  if  the  waters  were  to  reach  the 
sea,  Rome  would  perish.  Not  long  afterwards  the  ambassadors  return- 
ed from  Delphi,  and  brought  an  answer  to  a  like  effect :  whereupon  the 
tunnel  was  begun,  in  order  that  the  lake  might 'cease  to  overflow,  and 
that  the  water  drawn  from  it  might  be  spread  through  the  fields  in 
ditches.  This  work  was  carried  on  unremittingly  ;  and  the  Veientines 
learnt  that  the  fatal  consummation,  on  which  their  ruin  hung,  was  at 
hand.  They  sent  an  embassy  to  implore  forbearance  ;  but  they  found 
no  compassion.  The  chief  of  the  envoys,  before  they  quitted  the 
senate-house  with  the  unrelenting  answer,  warned  the  Romans  once 
more  of  the  penalty  that  would  inevitably  await  them  :  for,  as  certainly 
as  Veii  was  now  doomed  to  fall,  so  surely  did  the  same  oracles  foretell, 
that,  soon  after  the  fall  of  Veii,  Rome  would  be  taken  by  the  Gauls. 
Nobody  listened  to  him. 

*'  Camillus  was  already  commanding  as  dictator  before  the  city,  and  was 
unsuspectedly  executing  the  work  which  opened  the  way  for  its  destruc- 
tion.    The  Romans  seemed  to  be  standing  quietly  at  their  posts,  as  if 


138  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

they  were  waiting  the  slow  issue  of  a  blockade  which  could  not  be 
forced.  But  the  army  was  divided  into  six  bands  ;  and  these,  relieving 
one  another  every  six  hours,  were  labouring  incessantly  in  digging  a 
mine,  which  was  to  lead  into  the  citadel  of  Veii,  and  there  to  open  into 
the  temple  of  Juno. 

"  Before  the  assault  was  made,  the  dictator  inquired  of  the  senate, 
what  was  to  be  done  with  the  spoil.  Appius  Claudius,  the  grandson  of 
the  decemvir,  advised  selling  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  treasury,  that  it 
might  supply  pay  for  the  army  without  need  of  a  property-tax.  This 
was  opposed  by  P.  Licinius,  the  most  eminent  among  the  plebeian  mili- 
tary tribunes  :  he  even  declared  it  would  be  unfair  if  none  but  the, 
soldiers  then  on  the  spot  were  to  have  a  share  in  the  booty,  for  which 
every  citizen  had  made  some  sacrifice  or  other.  Notice,  he  said,  ought^" 
to  be  given,  for  all  who  wished  to  partake  in  it  to  proceed  to  the  camp. 
This  was  decreed ;  and  old  and  young  flocked  toward  the  devoted  city. 
Hereupon,  as  soon  as  the  water  was  dispersed  over  the  fields,  and  the 
passage  into  the  citadel  finished,  Camillus  made  a  vow  to  Matuta,  a 
goddess  highly  revered  on  the  adjacent  Tyrrhenian  coast,  and  addressed 
prayers  to  Juno,  whose  temple  covered  the  way  destined  to  lead  the 
Romans  into  the  city,  with  promises  that  she  should  receive  higher  hon- 
ours than  ever.  Nor  were  his  adjurations  fruitless.  To  the  Pythian 
Apollo,  whose  oracle,  when  it  encouraged  the  Romans  to  put  faith  in 
the  words  of  the  aruspex,  demanded  an  offering  for  Delphi,  he  vowed 
a  tenth  of  the  spoil.  Then,  at  the  appointed  hour,  the  passage  was 
filled  with  cohorts  :  Camillus  himself  led  the  way.  Meanwhile  the 
horns  blew  the  signal  for  the  assault ;  and  the  countless  host  brought 
scaling  ladders,  as  if  they  meant  to  mount  the  walls  from  every  side. 
Here  the  citizens  stood  expecting  the  enemy,  while  their  king  was  sa- 
crificing in  the  temple  of  Juno.  The  aruspex,  when  he  saw  the  victim, 
declared  that  whoever  brought  the  goddess  her  share  of  the  slaughtered 
animal  would  conquer.  This  was  heard  by  the  Romans  underground. 
They  burst  forth  and  seized  the  flesh  ;  and  Camillus  offered  it  up.  From 
the  citadel  they  rushed  irresistibly  through  the  city,  and  opened  the 
nearest  gates  to  the  assailants. 

"  The  incredible  amount  of  the  spoil  even  surpassed  the  expectations 
of  the  conquerors.  The  whole  was  given  to  the  army,  except  the  cap- 
tives who  had  been  spared  in  the  massacre,  before  the  unarmed  had 
their  lives  granted  to  them,  and  who  were  sold  on  account  of  the  state. 
All  objects  of  human  property  had  already  been  removed  from  the  empty 
walls  :  the  ornaments  and  statues  of  the  gods  alone  were  yet  untouched. 
Juno  had  accepted  the  vow  of  a  temple  on  the  Aventine.  But  every 
one  trembled  to  touch  her  image ;  for,  according  to  the  Etruscan  re- 


LA  SCALE  TT A.  139 

ligion,  none  but  a  priest  of  a  certain  house  might  do  so  without  fear  of 
death.  A  body  of  chosen  knights,  who  took  courage  to  venture  upon 
removing  it  from  its  place,  proceeded  to  the  temple  in  white  robes,  and 
asked  the  goddess  whether  she  consented  to  go  to  Rome.  They  heard 
her  voice  pronounce  her  assent ;  and  the  statue  of  its  own  accord  fol- 
lowed those  who  were  leading  it  forth. 

♦•  While  Camillus  was  looking  down  from  this  temple  on  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  captured  city,  the  immense  wealth  of  which  the  spoilers 
were  amassing,  he  called  to  mind  the  threats  of  the  Veientines,  and  that 
the  gods  were  wont  to  regard  excessive  prosperity  with  displeasure  ;  and 
he  prayed  to  the  mighty  queen  of  heaven  to  let  the  calamity  that  was  to 
expiate  it  be  such  as  the  republic  and  he  himself  could  support.  When 
after  ending  his  prayer  he  turned  round  to  the  right,  with  his  head 
veiled  according  to  custom,  his  foot  stumbled,  and  he  fell.  It  seemed  as 
if  the  goddess  had  graciously  appeased  destiny  with  this  mishap  :  and 
Camillus,  forgetting  the  foreboding  which  had  warned  him,  provoked 
the  angry  powers  by  the  unexampled  pomp  and  pride  of  his  triumph. 
Jupiter  and  Sol  saw  him  drive  up  with  their  own  team  of  white  horses 
to  the  Capitol.  For  this  arrogance  he  atoned  by  a  sentence  of  con 
demnation,  Rome  by  her  destruction." — Niebuhr's  Hist.ofRome^  ii.  476. 

From  this  time,  with  the  exception  of  a  brief  revival  under 

the  Empire,  the  site  of  Veii  has  been  utterly  desolate.     In 

1 17  Florus  (in  allusion  to  the  Etruscan  city)  wrote,  "  Who 

knows  the  situation  of  Veii '     It  is  only  to  be  found  in  our 

annals." 

...   •'  Tarpeia  sede  perusta 
Galloram  facibus,  Veiosque  habitante  Camillo, 
Illic  Roma  fuit" 

Lucan.  v.  27. 

.  .  .  *•  Tunc  omne  Latinum 
Fabula  nomen  erit ;  Gabios,  Veiosque,  Coramque 
Pulvere  vix  tectae  poterunt  monstrare  ruinae." 

Id.  vii.  392. 

There  are  many  other  points  which  may  be  visited  in  or 
near  the  circle  of  the  ancient  city.  Such  is  the  Scaletta,  a 
staircase  of  uncernented  blocks  of  masonry  near  the  Porta 
Fidenate,  which  attracted  much  attention  twenty  years  ago, 


I40  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

but  is  now  greatly  mutilated  ;  and  most  especially  the  Arco 
di  Pino,  a  very  picturesque  arch  in  the  tufa,  whether  natural 
or  artificial  is  unknown,  on  the  east  of  the  city  near  the 
large  tumulus  called  La  Vaccareccia*  Many  other  remains 
are  doubtless  still  waiting  to  be  discovered,  but  the  place 
has  never  been  fully  investigated.  None  of  the  dangers 
now  await  travellers  which  are  described  by  Mrs  Hamil- 
ton Gray. 

*'  Isola  is  a  sweet  quiet -looking  hamlet,  but  about  three  weeks  after 
our  visit  forty  of  the  inhabitants  were  taken  up  as  leagued  banditti,  and 
brought  to  Rome.  The  master  of  the  inn  was  one  of  their  leaders,  and 
said  at  times  to  have  given  his  guests  human  flesh  to  eat — detected  by  a 
young  surgeon,  who  found  a  finger  in  his  plate." — Sepulchres  of  Etruria. 

The  rock  of  Isola  itself  is  perforated  with  tombs,  and  was 
probably  the  necropolis  of  the  city. 

"  Such,  then,  is  Veil — once  the  most  powerful,  the  most  wealthy  city  of 
Etruria,  renowned  for  its  beauty,  its  arts,  and  refinement,  which  in  size 
equalled  Athens  and  Rome,  in  military  force  was  not  inferior  to  the 
latter,  and  which  for  its  size,  strong  by  nature  and  almost  impregnable 
by  art,  and  for  the  magnificence  of  its  buildings  and  the  superior  extent 
and  fertility  of  its  territory,  was  preferred  by  the  Romans  to  the  Eternal 
City  itself,  even  before  the  destruction  of  the  latter  by  the  Gauls, — now 
>oid  and  desolate,  without  one  house  or  inhabitant,  its  temples  and 
palaces  level  with  the  dust,  and  nothing  beyond  a  few  fragments  of 
walls,  and  some  empty  sepulchres,  remaining  to  tell  the  traveller  that 
here  Veil  was.  The  plough  passes  over  its  bosom,  and  the  shepherd 
pastures  his  flock  on  the  waste  within  it.  Such  must  it  have  been  in 
the  earlier  years  of  Augustus,  for  Propertius  pictures  a  similar  scene  of 
decay  and  desolation. 

'  Et  Veil  veteres,  et  vos  tum  regna  fuistis  ; 
Et  vestro  posita  est  aurea  sella  foro  ; 
Nunc  intra  muros  pastoris  buccina  lenti 
Cantat,  et  in  vestris  ossibus  arva  metunt.' 

^  Those  who  ride  may  visit  this  on  the  way  to  or  from  Rome. 


MONTE  MUSI  no:  14I 

"  Veil,  thou  hadst  a  royal  crown  of  old, 
And  in  thy  fonim  stood  a  throne  of  gold  ! — 
Thy  walls  now  echo  but  the  shepherd's  horn. 
And  o'er  thine  ashes  waves  the  summer  com.* 

How  are  we  to  account  for  this  neglect  ?  The  city  was  certainly  not  de- 
stroyed by  Camillus,  for  the  superior  magnificence  of  its  public  and 
private  buildings  were  temptations  to  the  Romans  to  desert  the  Seven 
Hills.  But  after  the  destruction  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls  Veil  was  aban- 
doned, in  consequence  of  the  decree  of  the  senate  threatening  with  the 
severest  punishment  the  Roman  citizens  who  should  remain  within  its 
walls  ;  and  Niebuhr's  conjecture  is  not  perhaps  incorrect,  that  it  was  de- 
molished to  supply  materials  for  the  rebuilding  of  Rome,  though  the 
distance  would  preclude  the  transport  of  more  than  the  architectural 
ornaments.  Its  desolation  must  have  been  owing  either  to  the  policy  of 
Rome  which  proscribed  its  habitation,  or  to  malaria  ;  otherwise  a  city 
which  presented  so  many  advantages  as  almost  to  have  tempted  the 
Romans  to  desert  the  hearths  and  the  sepulchres  of  their  fathers  would 
scarcely  have  been  suffered  to  fall  into  utter  decay,  and  remain  so  for 
nearly  four  centuries." — Dennis. 

A  leading  feature  in  all  the  views  from  Veii,  is  the  conical 
hill  called  Monte  Musino^  six  miles  distant.  This  curious 
place  may  be  reached  by  following  the  Via  Cassia  as  far  as 
the  posthouse  of  Baccano^  the  ancient  "  Ad  Baccanas,"  1 8 
miles  from  Rome.  It  is  situated  in  the  crater  of  a  volcano, 
afterwards  a  lake,  which  was  drained  in  very  early  times. 
Two  miles  further  north  lies  Campagtiano^  a  village  with  a 
few  insignificant  Etruscan  and  Roman  remains.  Hence  a 
path  runs  eastward  for  five  miles  to  Scrofano,  which  has 
many  Etruscan  tombs  and  lies  at  the  foot  of  Monte  Mu- 
sino,  which  is  most  easily  ascended  from  thence.  The  hill 
is  conical,  and  is  cut  into  a  series  of  artificial  terraces  whose 
origin  cannot  be  satisfactorily  explained,  unless  this  is  the 
**  Oscum  "  mentioned  by  Festus,  the  sacred  country  retreat 
of  the  Roman  augurs.  Near  the  summit  is  a  cave.  The 
whole  is  crested  by  a  wood  which  has  been  preserved  intact 


142  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

by  the  superstition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Scrofano,  who  be- 
lieve that  the  feUing  of  the  trees  would  be  followed  by  the 
death  of  the  head  of  each  family.  On  the  top  of  the  hill  a 
treasure  is  supposed  to  be  buried,  and  protected  by  demons, 
who  would  arouse  a  tempest,  were  any  attempt  made  to 
discover  it.     The  view  is  very  striking. 

Twenty-two  miles  from  Rome  on  the  Via  Cassia  is  the 
large  inn  of  Le  Sette  Vene,  near  which  there  is  a  small  Etrus- 
can bridge  in  good  preservation. 


CHAPTER  VIT. 

GALERA  AND   BRACCiANO. 

(There  is  a  public  conveyance  daily  from  Rome  to  Bracciano,  which 
toils  along  the  road  in  five  hours.  Two  good  horses  will  take  a  light 
carriage  containing  four  persons  thither  in  three  hours.  Though  it  is 
said  to  be  26  miles  distant,  Bracciano  is  within  an  easy  day's  excursion 
from  Rome.  There  are  two  tolerably  decent  inns  at  Bracciano,  which 
has  a  population  of  above  2000.) 

STORMS  were  sweeping  over  the  Janiculan,  and  occasion- 
ally shrouding  S.  Peter's  in  a  white  mist,  while  the 
Campagna  beyond  the  Aventine  seemed  blotted  with  ink, 
but  as  we  had  settled  to  go  to  Bracciano,  and  an  excursion 
0/  more  than  20  miles  is  very  difficult  to  re-arrange,  we  de- 
termined not  to  be  deterred  by  weather,  and,  as  usual  in 
such  cases,  things  turned  out  better  than  we  anticipated. 

It  was  again  the  Via  Cassia,  which  had  led  us  to  Veii ;  but, 
beyond  La  Storta,  the  road  to  Bracciano  turns  to  the  left, 
over  a  most' dreary  thistle-grown  part  of  the  Campagna,  with 
here  and  there  a  deep  cutting  in  the  tufa,  and  banks  covered 
with  violets  and  crowned  with  golden  genista.  A  bridle 
road,  turning  off  on  the  right,  one  mile  from  La  Storta,  leads 
to  the  picturesque  and  lonely  convent  of  La  Madonna  del 
Sorbo  (about  seven  or  eight  miles  distant),  founded  in  1400 
by  the  Orsini. 


144 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


On  the  main  road  there  is  Uttle  interest,  till  'the  tiny 
rivulet  Arrone,  an  outlet  of  the  lake  of  Bracciano,  crosses 
the  road,  and  tumbles  in  a  waterfall  over  a  cliff  into  one  of 
those  deep  glens  which  suggest  the  sites  of  so  many- 
Etruscan  cities,  and  which  here  encircles  that  of  the  for- 
gotten Etruscan  fortress  of  Galeria,  afterwards  occupied  by 
the  mediaeval  town  of  Galera.  Those  who  pass  along  the 
high  road  catch  glimpses  of  its  tall  tower  and  ivy-grown 
walls,  but  they  must  cross  the  fields,  and  descend  into  its 
ravine  (leaving  their  carriage  at  the  farm-house  called  Santa 
Maria  di  Galera)  to  realize  that  the  whole  place  is  absolutely 
deserted  except  by  bats  and  serpents,  and  that  it  is  one 
of  the  most  striking  of  "  the  lost  cities  of  the  Campagna." 

The  situation  is  wonderfully  picturesque,  the  walls  rising 
from  the  very  edge  of  a  steep  lava  precipice,  round  which 


Galera. 


the  beautiful  Arrone  circles  and  sparkles  through  the  trees, 
and  unites  itself  to  another  little  stream,  the  Fosso,  just  be- 


GALERA. 


145 


low  the  citadel.  In  the  eleventh  century  Galera  belonged 
to  the  Counts  Tosco,  troublesome  barons  of  the  Campagna, 
against  whom  in  1058  Pope  Benedict  X.  called  in  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Normans,  who  were  only  too  happy  to  ravage  and 
plunder  the  town.  In  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries 
the  place  became  an  important  stronghold  of  the  Orsini, 
who  held  it  by  tenure  of  an  annual  payment  of  three  pounds 
of  wax  to  the  Pope.  Their  arms  are  over  the  gateway,  and 
they  built  the  tall  handsome  tower  of  the  church,  which  was 
dedicated  to  S.  Nicholas ;  but  they  were  unable  to  defend 
the  town  against  their  deadly  enemies  the  Colonnas,  who 
took  it  and  utterly  sacked  it  in  July,  1485.  The  last  histo- 
rical association  of  the  place  is  that  Charles  V.  slept  there, 
the  day  he  left  Rome,  April  18,  1536. 

Only  a  short  time  ago  Galera  had  ninety  inhabitants.    Now 


Castle  of  Galera, 


it  has  none.     There  is  no  one  to  live  in  the  houses,  no  one 
to  pray  in  the  church.     Malaria  reigns  triumphant  here, 


VOL. 


146  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME- 

and  keeps  all  human  creatures  at  bay.  Even  the  shepherd 
who  conies  down  in  the  day  to  watch  the  goats  who  are 
scrambling  about  the  broken  walls,  would  pay  with  his  life 
for  passing  the  night  here.  It  is  a  bewitched  solitude,  with 
the  ghosts  of  the  past  in  full  possession.  All  is  fast  decay- 
ing :  the  town  walls,  some  of  which  date  from  the  eleventh 
century,  are  sliding  over  into  the  thickets  of  brambles.  Above 
them  rise  the  remains  of  the  fine  old  Orsini  castle,  from 
which  there  is  an  unspeakably  desolate  view,  the  effect  of 
the  scene  being  enhanced  by  the  knowledge  that  the  strength 
of  Galera  has  fallen  beneath  no  human  foe,  but  that  a  more 
powerful  and  invincible  enemy  has  been  found  in  the  mys- 
terious "  scourge  of  the  Campagna."  The  only  bright  point 
about  the  ruins  is  the  old  washing-place  of  the  town  in  the 
glen,  where  the  waters  of  the  Arrone,  ever  bright  and  spark- 
ling, are  drawn  off  into  stone  basons  overhung  with  fern  and 
creepers. 

Beyond  Galera,  leaving  the  Convent  of  Santa  Maria 
in  Celsano  to  the  east,  the  road  to  Bracciano  enters  a 
more  fertile  district.  On  the  left  is  passed  a  marsh,  once 
a  lake,  called  the  Lago  Morto.  Green  corn  now  covers  the 
hill-sides,  and  here  and  there  is  an  olive  garden.  Soon, 
upon  the  right,  the  beautiful  Lake  of  Bracciano^  20  miles  in 
circumference,  and  six  miles  across  in  its  widest  part,  is 
seen  sleeping  in  its  still  bason  surrounded  by  green  wooded 
hills.  Then  the  huge  Castle  of  the  Odescalchi,  built  of  black 
lava,  and  fringed  by  deeply-machicolated  towers,  rises  before 
us,  crowning  the  yellow  lichen-gilded  roofs  of  the  town.  We 
rattle  into  the  ill-paved  street,  and,  between  the  dull  white- 
washed houses,  we  see  the  huge  towers  frowning  down 
upon  us.     At  last  the  carriage  can  go  no  further  and  stops 


ASCENT  TO  BRACCIANO. 


H7 


in  a  little  piazza.  The  steep  ascent  to  the  fortress  can  only 
be  surmounted  on  mule-back  or  on  foot,  and  is  cut  out  of 
the  solid  rock.  On  and  in  this  rock  the  castle  was  built  by 
the  Orsini  in  the  fifteenth  century,  just  after  their  normal 
enemies,  the  Colonnas,  had  destroyed  a  former  fortress  of 
theirs.  So  they  were  determined  to  make  it  strong  enough. 
As  we  enter  beneath  the  gateway  surmounted  by  the  arms 
of  the  Orsini,  we  see  that  the  rock  still  forms  the  pavement, 
and  reaches  half-way  up  the  walls  around  us.  The  rest  of 
these  grim  walls  is  of  black  lava,  plundered,  it  is  said,  from 
the  paving-blocks  of  the  Via  Cassia.  Gloomy  passages,  also 
cut  out  of  the  solid  rocks,  lead  into  profundities  suggestive 


Bracciano. 

of  the  most  romantic  adventures  and  escapes.  One  does 
not  wonder  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  more  anxious  to  see 
Bracciano  than  anything  else  in  Italy,  and  set  off  thither 
almost  immediately  after  his  arrival  in  Rome. 

The  inner  court  of  the  castle  is  much  more  cheerful.     It 


148 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 


has  a  gothic  loggia  and  a  curious  outside  staircase,  at  once 
descending  and  ascending,  and  adorned  with  frescoes.  As 
we  were  sitting  here  to  draw,  the  old  housekeeper  came  out 
to  welcome  us.  She  had  been  the  German  nurse  of  the 
young  Prince  Odescalchi,  to  whom  the  castle  now  belongs  ; 
we  brought  her  a  letter  from  the  Princess-mother,  and  she 
was  delighted  to  have  the  break  in  the  monotony  of  her  life. 
She  had  "  told  the  Princess  she  wished  for  repose  —  she 
wished  to  have  time  to  think  in  her  old  age — and  here  she 
found  it,  but  sometimes  the  repose  was  almost  too  much. 
The  wind  whistled  through  the  long  galleries  louder  than  was 
pleasant,  when  there  was  no  voice  to  enliven  it ;  and  last 
week  in  the  earthquake — when  the  castle  went  crick-crack, 
and  the  plaster  fell  from  the  walls,  and  the  tiles  rattled  upon 
the  roof — oh,  then  it  was  roba  da  spaventare." 


Castle  Court.     Bracciano. 


Of  the  few  mediaeval  castles  in  Italy  which  are  still  in- 
habited Bracciano  is  one  of  the  largest.     The  Odescalchi 


CASTLE  OF  BRACCIANO.  149 

family  still  occasionally  come  here  in  summer,  when  the 
vast  chambers  must  be  delightfully  cool,  and  the  views  over 
lake  and  town  and  mountains  most  enjoyable.  On  the 
upper  floor  is  the  Hall  of  Justice,  where  the  Orsini  barons, 
who  had  the  right  of  appointing  magistrates,  and  being  judges 
in  their  own  persons,  used  for  several  centuries  to  sit  in 
judgment  upon  their  dependants.  The  Great  Hall  on  the 
ground  floor  has  some  rapidly-vanishing  frescoes  of  Zuc- 
chero,  and  looks  like  a  place  where  ten  thousand  ghosts 
might  hold  carnival,  only  perhaps  their  revels  would  be  hin- 
dered by  the  tiny  chapel  which  opens  out  of  it.  In  the 
living  apartments  are  some  fine  old  chairs  and  carved  modern 
furniture,  splendid  beds  and  wardrobes,  and  infinitesimal 
washing-apparatus.  One  room  has  family  portraits  from  old 
times  down  to  the  present  possessors.  These  are  very  proud 
of  their  home,  though  they  are  not  often  here.  Some  years 
ago,  poverty  obliged  them  to  sell  their  castle,  but  they  did 
so  with  aching  hearts,  and  when  it  was  bought  by  Prince 
Torlonia,  a  reservation  was  made,  that  if  the  wheel  of  their 
fortunes  should  revolve  within  a  limited  space  of  years,  they 
should  be  allowed  to  buy  it  back  again  at  the  same  price 
which  he  had  given.  Torlonia  felt  secure,  spent  much  time 
and  money  at  Bracciano,  and  was  devoted  to  his  new  pur- 
chase. As  the  time  was  drawing  to  a  conclusion,  all  doubt 
as  to  the  future  vanished  from  his  mind,  but,  just  in  time, 
the  fortune  of  the  Princess-mother  Odescalchi  enabled  the 
family  to  redeem  their  pledge,  and  the  former  possessors 
returned,  to  their  own  triumph  and  the  delight  of  the 
inhabitants.  The  Princess  Odescalchi,  whose  fortune  re- 
deemed Bracciano,  is  almost  a  historical  character  in  Rome. 
She  has  been  one  of  the  strongest  supporters  of  the  Pope, 


ISO  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

which  is  not  unnatural,  for  in  a  great  illness,  the  physicians 
had  given  up  her  case  as  hopeless,  and  declared  that  no- 
thing short  of  a  miracle  could  save  her.  At  this  juncture, 
when  all  her  family  were  assembled  to  see  her  die,  the 
Pope,  from  the  Vatican,  sent  her  his  absolution  and  bless- 
ing, and  with  it  a  very  tiny  loaf  of  bread — "panetella,"* 
which  he  desired  her  to  swallow,  —  he  had  prayed  over 
it  and  blessed  it,  and  perhaps  it  would  save  her  life.  She 
did  swallow  it,  recovered,  and  the  next  day  went  in  person 
to  the  Vatican  to  return  thanks  to  the  Holy  Father ! 

But  it  was  only  in  the  last  century  that  the  Odescalchi 
purchased  Bracciano  from  the  Orsini,  who  were  then  begin- 
ning to  fall  into  decadence,  after  a  splendid  historical  career 
of  more  than  six  hundred  years.  Pope  Celestin  III.  (1191 
— 98)  was  an  Orsini,  and  Pope  Nicholas  III.  (1277 — 81), 
whom  Dante  sees  in  hell,  among  the  Simonists. 

**  Sappi  ch'io  fui  vestito  del  gran  manto. 
E  veramente  fui  figliuol  dell'  Orsa 
Cupido  SI  per  avanzar  gli  Orsatti, 

Che  su  I'avere,  e  qui  me  misi  in  borsa. " 

Inferno,  xix. 

But  having  bestowed  two  popes  upon  the  Church  is  the 
least  of  the  glories  of  the  Orsini,  and  it  is  their  ceaseless 
contests  with  the  Colonnas,  in  which  they  wer'^  alternately 
victorious  and  defeated,  which  gives  them  their  chief  his- 
torical consequence. 

'*  Orsi,  lupi,  leone,  aquile  e  serpi 
Ad  una  gran  marmorea  Colonna 
Fanno  noja  sovente  e  a  se  danno." 

Petrarca,  Canz.  vi. 

*  "  Panetelle  di  San  Nicolo  "  are  still  eaten  by  the  lower  classes  in  and  near  Rome 
on  the  festival  of  that  popular  saint — the  Bishop  of  Myra — "  per  divozione,"  in  re- 
membrance of  the  little  loaves  of  this  kind  which  he  used  to  distribute  to  the  poor. 


THE  ORSINL 


IS' 


**  The  Ursini  migrated  from  Spoleto  :  the  sons  of  Ursus,  as  they  are 
styled  in  the  twelfth  century,  from  some  eminent  person,  who  is  only 
known  as  the  father  of  their  race.  But  they  were  soon  distinguished 
among  the  nobles  of  Rome,  by  the  number  and  bravery  of  their  kins- 
men, the  strength  of  their  towers,  the  honours  of  the  senate  and  sacred 
college,  and  the  elevation  of  two  popes,  Celestin  III.  and  Nicholas  III., 
of  their  name  and  lineage.  Their  riches  may  be  accused  as  an  early 
abuse  of  nepotism  ;  the  estates  of  S.  Peter  were  alienated  in  their  favour 
by  the  liberal  Celestin  ;  and  Nicholas  was  ambitious  for  their  sakes  to 
solicit  the  alliance  of  monarchs  ;  to  found  new  kingdoms  in  Lombardy 
and  Tuscany  ;  and  to  invest  them  with  the  perpetual  office  of  senators 
of  Rome.  All  that  has  been  observed  of  the  greatness  of  the  Colonna, 
will  likewise  redound  to  the  glory  of  the  Ursini,  their  constant  and  equal 
antagonists  in  the  long  hereditary  feud,  which  distracted  above  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  the  ecclesiastical  state.  The  jealousy  of  pre-emin- 
ence and  power  was  the  true  ground  of  their  quarrel ;  but  as  a  specious 
badge  of  distinction,  the  Colonna  embraced  the  name  of  Ghibellines 
and  the  party  of  the  Empire  ;  the  Ursini  espoused  the  title  of  Guelphs 
and  the  cause  of  the  Church.  The  eagle  and  the  keys  were  displayed 
in  their  adverse  banners ;  and  the  two  factions  of  Italy  most  furiously 
raged  when  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  dispute  were  long  since  forgot- 
ten. After  the  retreat  of  the  popes  to  Avignon,  they  disputed  in  arms 
the  vacant  republic ;  and  the  mischiefs  of  discord  were  perpetuated  by 
the  wretched  compromise  of  electing  each  year  two  rival  senators.  By 
their  private  hostilities,  the  city  and  country  were  desolated,  and  the 
fluctuating  balance  inclined  with  their  alternate  success.  But  none  of 
either  family  had  fallen  by  the  sword,  till  the  most  renowned  champion 
of  the  Ursini  was  surprised  and  slain  by  the  younger  Stephen  Colonna. 
His  triumph  is  stained  with  the  reproach  of  violating  the  truce ;  their 
defeat  was  basely  avenged  by  the  assassination,  before  the  church  door, 
of  an  innocent  boy  and  his  two  servants.  Yet  the  victorious  Colonna, 
with  an  annual  colleague,  was  declared  senator  of  Rome  during  the  term 
of  five  years.  And  the  muse  of  Petrarch  inspired  a  wish,  a  hope,  a 
prediction,  that  the  generous  youth,  the  son  of  his  venerable  hero,  would 
restore  Rome  and  Italy  to  their  pristine  glory ;  that  his  justice  would 
extirpate  the  wolves  and  lions,  the  serpents  and  bears^  who  laboured  to 
subvert  the  eternal  basis  of  the  marble  Column." — Gibbon's  Roman 
Empire,  ch.  Ixix. 

"genuit  quem  nobilis  Ursae 

Progenies,  Romana  domus,  veterataque  magnis 
Fascibus  in  clero,  pompasque  experta  senatus, 
Bellorumque  manu  grandi  stipata  parentum 


152  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Cardineos  apices,  necnon  fastigia  dudum 
Papatus  iterata  tenens." 

Cardinal  St.  George  on  Celestin  V. 

The  broad  terrace  immediately  under  the  castle  looks 
down  upon  the  great  Lake  of  Bracciano,  which  in  ancient 
times  was  called  the  Lacus  Sabatinus,  and  is  mentioned  by 
Festus.  Near  the  site  of  Bracciano,  says  tradition,  stood  the 
city  of  Sabate,  which  was  overwhelmed  by  the  lake  long  ago, 
though  its  houses,  its  temples,  and  statues,  may  still  be  seen, 
on  a  clear  day,  standing  intact  beneath  the  glassy  waters. 
The  silvery  expanse  is  backed  by  distant  snow  mountains, 
and  here  and  there  a  little  feudal  town  crowns  the  hill-sides 
or  stands  on  the  shore  and  is  reflected  in  the  lake.  Oriolo 
has  a  villa  of  the  Altieri,  and  its  church-porch  bears  an  in- 
scription, which  shows  that  it  occupies  the  site  of  Pausilypon, 
built  by  Metia,  wife  of  Titus  Metius  Herdonius.  Vicarello 
(from  Vicus  Aureliae)  has  the  ruins  of  a  Roman  villa,  and  is 
still  celebrated  for  the  baths  so  useful  in  cutaneous  disorders, 
which  were  well  known  in  old  times  as  Aquae  Aureliae. 
Many  curious  Roman  coins  and  vases  have  been  found  there. 
Beyond  Vicarello  is  Trevignano,  another  Orsini  stronghold, 
picturesquely  crowned  by  their  old  castle.  Lastly  we  must 
notice  Anguillara,  with  a  fine  machicolated  castle,  bearing 
the  celebrated '  crossed  eels '  of  the  famous  Counts  of  Anguil- 
lara,  of  whom  were  Pandolfo  d'Anguillara  who  built  the 
church  of  S.  Francesco  a  Ripa  at  Rome,  Everso  d'Anguil- 
lara, celebrated  as  a  robber  chief  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  Orso  d'Anguillara,  the  senator  who  crowned  Petrarch 
upon  the  Capitol,  and  lived  in  the  old  palace  which  still 
remains  in  the  Trastevere.  Their  country  castle,  which 
successfully  withstood  a  siege  from  the.  Duke  of  Calabria  in 


LAKE  OF  BRACCIANO.  153 

i486,  overhangs  the  quiet  lake,  which  indeed  at  one  time 
bore  its  name,  and  the  town,  which  is  20  miles  from  Rome, 
is  well  worth  visiting,  by  a  road  which  turns  off  on  the  right 
not  far  from  Galera. 

As  we  stood  on  the  terrace,  looking  down  upon  all  these 
historical  scenes,  the  violet  sky  suddenly  opened,  a  rainbow 
arched  across  the  expanse  of  waters,  and  rays  of  light 
flitting  along  the  green  encircling  slopes,  lit  up  one  old 
fortress  after  another,  as  with  a  golden  glory,  which  lasted 
for  an  instant,  and  faded  again  into  the  purple  mist.  It  was 
a  beautiful  effort  of  Nature,  cheering  the  monotony  of  a 
cloudy,  misty  day. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GABII  AND  ZAGAROLO. 

(Gabii,  1 1  miles  from  Rome,  is  a  pleasant  short-day's  excursion  in  a 
carriage  ^which,  with  two  horses,  ought  not  to  cost  more  than  15 
francs).  On  horseback  Gabii,  Collatia,  and  Lunghezza,  may  be  visited 
in  the  same  day. ) 

THE  road  which  leads  to  Gabii  is  the  Via  Prcenesfina, 
sometimes  called  Via  Gabina,  which  emerges  from 
the  Porta  Maggiore,  and  turns  to  the  left  (the  central  road  of 
three).  On  the  left,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  walls,  we  pass 
a  tomb  said  to  be  that  of  T.  Quintus  Atta,  a.u.c.  678.  Then, 
crossing  a  small  streamlet  in  a  hollow,  believed  to  be  the 
Aqua  Bollica?tfe,  which  marked  the  limits  of  ancient  Rome, 
where  the  Arvales  sang  their  hymn,  we  reach  the  ruins  of 
the  Torre  degli  Schiavi,  the  villa  and  temple  of  the  Gordian 
Emperors  (see  Walks  in  Rome,  ii,  133),  which,  in  their  rich- 
ness of  colour,  backed  by  the  lovely  mountains  of  the 
Sabina,  present  one  of  the  most  beautiful  scenes  in  the 
whole  Campagna. 

At  the  foot  of  the  little  hill  upon  which  the  ruins  stand, 
the  road  to  Lunghezza  turns  off  on  the  left.  The  Campagna 
now  becomes  excessively  wild  and  open.  Here  and  there  a 
tomb  or  a  tower  breaks  the  wide  expanse.  Far  on  the  left 
is  the  great  castle  of  Cervaretto,  and  beyond  it  Cervara  and 


PONTENONA.  155 

Rustica;  further  still  is  the  Tor  dei  Pazzi.  To  the  left  the 
valley  is  seen  opening  towards  the  Hernican  and  Volscian 
hills,  between  the  great  historic  sites  of  Praeneste  and 
Colonna.     All  is  most  beautiful,  yet  unutterably  desolate : — 

"  The  very  sepulchres  lie  tenantless 
Of  their  heroic  dwellers. " 

Now,  on  the  left,  rises,  on  a  broad  square  basement,  the  fine 
tower  called  Tor  Tre  Teste ^  from  the  three  heads  (from  a  tomb) 
built  into  its  walls.  Beyond,  also  on  the  left,  is  the  Tor 
Saptefiza. 

The  eighth  mile  from  Rome  is  interesting  as  the  spot 
where  Roman  legend,  as  narrated  by  Livy  (v.  49),  tells  that 
Camillus  overtook  the  army  of  the  Gauls  laden  with  the 
spoils  of  Rome,  and  defeated  them  so  totally,  that  he  left 
not  a  single  man  alive  to  carry  the  news  home  to  their 
countrymen. 

"  Among  the  fictions  attached  to  Roman  history,  this  was  one  of  the 
first  to  be  rejected." — Niebuhr. 

"Such  a  falsification,  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  in  the  annals  of  any 
other  people,  justifies  the  strongest  suspicion  of  all  those  accounts  of 
victories  and  triumphs  which  appears  to  rest  in  any  degree  on  tlie 
authority  of  the  family  memorials  of  the  Roman  aristocracy." — Arnold. 

At  the  ninth  mile  the  road  passes  over  the  magnificent 
viaduct  called  Pontenona^  consisting  of  seven  arches,  built 
of  the  gloomy  stone  called  "lapis  gabinus."  The  pave- 
ment of  the  bridge,  and  even  part  of  the  parapet,  exist, 
showing  what  it  was  when  entire. 

"C'est  certainement  k  la  plus  belle  epoque  de  I'architecture  republic- 
dine  qu'appartient  le  pont  de  Nona,  sur  la  voie  Prenestine,  probablement 
i  I'epoque  du  Tabularium,  c'est  4  dire  au  temps  de  Sylla.  II  est  bati  en 
peperin  dont  les  blocs  ont  quelquefois  dix  ou  douze  pieds  de  longueur  ; 
au-dessous  des  arches,  qui  ont  de  dix-huit  ^  vingt-quatre  pieds  de 
hauteur,  est  un  pont  beaucoup  plus  petit,  qui  a  precede  I'autre.     Ce 


156  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

petit  pont  primitif  etait  sans  doute  I'oeuvre  des  habitants  du  lieu  et  lour 
suffisait ;  mais  Rome  est  venue  ;  elle  a  eleve  le  niveau  du  pont  jusqu'au 
niveau  de  la  voute,  k  laquelle  il  etait  lie,  et  a  laisse  subsister  k  ses  pieds 
son  humble  pred^cesseur  comme  pour  servir  a  mesurer  sa  grandeur  par 
le  contraste." — Ampere,  iv,  71. 

More  and  more  desolate  becomes  the  country,  till  at  the 
Osteria  del  Osa,  ti  miles  from  Rome,  the  road  to  Gabii, 
now  exceedingly  rough  for  carriages,  leaves  the  Via  Praenes- 
tina  to  the  right,  and,  skirting  the  edge  of  the  crater-lake  of 
Gabii,  now  almost  dried  up,  reaches  the  few  huts  which 
mark  the  site  of  the  town,  and  a  low  massive  ruin,  which 
might  easily  pass  overlooked,  but  which  is  no  less  than  a 
fragment — the  cella — of  the  famous  Temple  of  J^uno,  cele- 
brated by  Virgil : — 

'* quique  arva  Gabinse 

Junonis,  gelidumque  Anienem,  et  roscida  rivis 
Hemica  saxa  colunt. " 

^n.  vii.  682. 

and  by  Silius  Italicus  ; 

'*.  .  .  .  nee  amoena  retentant 
Algida,  nee  juxta  Junonis  tecta  Gabinae." 

xii.  5,  36. 

"The  temple  (the  cell  of  which  remains  almost  entire,  but  rent  in 
certain  parts  apparently  by  lightning)  is  built  of  rectangular  blocks  of 
peperino.  It  has  the  same  aspect  as  that  of  Diana  at  Aricia ;  that  is, 
the  wall  of  the  posticum  is  prolonged  beyond  the  cella,  to  the  width  of 
the  portico  on  each  side  : 

'Columnis  adjectis  dextra  et  sinistra  ad  humeros  pronai.' 

Vitruvius. 

The  number  of  columns  could  scarcely  be  less  than  six  in  front ;  those 
of  the  flanks  have  not  been  decided.  The  columns  were  fluted,  and  of 
peperino,  like  the  rest  of  the  building ;  but  it  might  perhaps  be 
hazardous  to  assign  them  to  a  very  remote  period.  The  pavement  is  a 
mosaic  of  large  white  tesserae." — Sir  W.  Gell. 

"The  form  of  this  temple  was  almost  identical  with  that  at  Aricia. 
The  interior  of  the  cella  was  twenty-seven  feet  wide,  and  forty-five  feet 


REMAINS  OF  GAB  11.  157 

long.  It  had  columns  of  the  Doric  ordpr  in  front  and  at  the  sides,  but 
none  at  the  back.  The  surrounding  area  was  about  fifty-four  feet  at  the 
sides,  but  in  front  a  space  of  only  eight  feet  was  left  open,  in  consequence 
of  the  position  of  the  theatre,  which  abutted  closely  upon  the  temple. 
On  the  eastern  side  of  the  cella  are  traces  of  the  rooms  in  which  the 
priests  in  charge  of  the  temple  lived. " — Burn^  The  Roman  Campagna. 

From  the  temple  we  look  across  the  grey-green  crater  of 
the  lake — ^which  has  lately  been  drained  by  Prince  Torlonia, 
to  whom  it  belongs,  to  the  great  destruction  of  its  beauty, 
and  the  improvement  of  his  property — to  the  mediaeval 
tower  of  Castiglione  (which  is  mentioned  in  a  deed  of  1225) 
occupying  the  highest  part  of  the  ridge,  and  marking  the 
site  of  the  citadel  of  Gabii.  Slight  remains  of  wall  exist 
near  the  tower,  and  small  fragments  of  ruins  with  scattered 
pieces  of  marble  may  be  found  all  along  the  ridge.  Near 
the  temple  remains  of  semi-circular  seats,  perhaps  indicating 
a  Theatre^  have  been  discovered,  and  nearer  the  high-road  it 
has  become  possible  to  trace  the  plan  of  the  Foruniy  a  work 
of  imperial  times,  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  porticoes, 
and  adorned  with  statues. 

These  fragments,  ill-defined  and  scattered  at  long  intervals 
in  the  corn  or  rank  weeds  with  which  the  Campagna  is  over- 
grown, are  all  that  remains  of  Gabii. 

Virgil  and  Dionysius  say  that  Gabii  was  a  Latin  colony  of 
Alba.  Solinus  asserts  that  it  was  founded  by  two  Siculian 
brothers  Galatios  and  Bios,  from  whose  united  names  that 
of  the  city  was  formed.  Dionysius  says  that  it  was  one  of 
the  largest  and  most  populous  of  Latin  cities.  It  seems  to 
have  been  the  university  of  Latium,  and  Plutarch  and 
Strabo  narrate  that  Romulus  and  Remus  were  sent  there  to 
learn  Greek  and  the  use  of  arms.  In  the  reign  of  Tar- 
quinius  Superbus,  Gabii  gave  refuge  to  exiles  from  Rome 


IS8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

and  other  cities  of  Latium,  and  so  aroused  the  hostility  of 
the  King. 

**  Ultima  Tarquinius  Romanae  gentis  habebat 
Regna ;  vir  injustus,  fortis  ad  arma  tamen. 
Ceperat  hie  alias,  alias  everterat  urbes  ; 
Et  Gabios  turpi  fecerat  arte  suos." 

Ovid.  Fast  ii.  687. 

"The  primeval  greatness  of  Gabii  is  still  apparent  in  the  walls  of 
the  cell  of  the  temple  of  Juno.  Dionysius  saw  it  yet  more  conspicuous 
in  the  ruins  of  the  extensive  walls,  by  which  the  city,  standing  in  the 
plain,  had  been  surrounded,  and  which  had  been  demolished  by  a 
destroying  conqueror,  as  well  as  in  those  of  several  buildings.  It  was 
one  of  the  thirty  Latin  cities  :  but  it  scorned  the  determination  of  the 
confederacy — in  which  cities  far  from  equal  in  power  were  equal  in 
votes — to  degrade  themselves.  Hence  it  began  an  obstinate  war  with 
Rome.  The  contending  cities  were  only  twelve  miles  apart ;  and  the 
country  betwixt  them  endured  all  the  evils  of  military  ravages  for  years, 
no  end  of  which  was  to  be  foreseen  :  for  within  their  walls  they  were 
invincible. 

"But  Sextus,  the  son  of  Tarquinius  Superbus,  pretended  to  rebel. 
The  king,  whose  anger  appeared  to  have  been  provoked  by  his  wanton 
insolence,  condemned  him  to  a  disgraceful  punishment,  as  if  he  had 
been  the  meanest  of  his  subjects.  He  came  to  the  Gabines  under  the 
mask  of  a  fugitive.  The  bloody  marks  of  his  stripes,  and  still  more  the 
infatuation  which  comes  over  men  doomed  to  perish,  gained  him  belief 
and  goodwill.  At  first  he  led  a  body  of  volunteers  :  then  troops  were 
trusted  to  his  charge.  Every  enterprise  succeeded ;  for  booty  and 
soldiers  were  thrown  in  his  way  at  certain  appointed  places ;  and  the 
deluded  citizens  raised  the  man,  under  whose  command  they  promised 
themselves  the  pleasures  of  a  successful  war,  to  the  dictatorship.  The 
last  step  of  his  treachery  was  yet  to  come.  None  of  the  troops  being 
hirelings,  it  was  a  hazardous  venture  to  open  a  gate.  Sextus  sent  to  ask 
his  father  in  what  way  he  should  deliver  Gabii  into  his  hands. 
Tarquinius  was  in  his  garden  when  he  received  the  messenger  :  he 
walked  along  in  silence,  striking  off  the  heads  of  the  tallest  poppies 
with  his  stick,  and  dismissed  the  man  without  an  answer.  On  this  hint, 
Sextus  put  to  death,  or  by  means  of  false  charges  banished,  such  of  the 
Gabines  as  were  able  to  oppose  him.  By  distributing  their  fortunes  he 
purchased  partisans  among  the  lowest  class ;  and,  acquiring  the  uncon- 
tested rule,  brought  the  city  to  submit  to  his  father." — Niebuhr's  Hist, 
of  Rome,  i.  491. 


STORY  OF  GAB II.  159 

The  treaty  concluded  at  this  time  between  Rome  and 

Gabii  was  preserved  on  a  wooden  shield  in  the  temple  of 

Jupiter  Fidius   at   Rome.     It   is   evidently   one  of  those 

alluded  to  by  Horace  as  the  : — 

"foedera  regum 
Cum  Gabiis  aut  cum  rigidis  aequata  Sabinis."* 

After  the  expulsion  of  the  kings,  Sextus  Tarquinius  took 
refuge  at  Gabii,  where,  according  to  Livy,  he  was  murdered. 
But  Gabii  was  one  of  the  cities  which  combined  in  behalf  of 
the  Tarquins  at  the  Lake  Regillus.  After  that  battle  it 
became  subject  to  Rome,  and  almost  disappears  from  history 
for  several  centuries,  and  was  so  reduced  that : — 

"...  Gabios,  Veiosque,  Coramque 
Pulvere  vix  tectse  poterunt  monstrare  ruinse." 

Lucan.  vii.  392. 

"  Scis  Lebedus  quam  sit  Gabiis  desertior  atque 
Fidenis  vicus." 

Hor.  i.  Ep.  II. 

'*  Quippe  suburbance  parva  minus  urbe  Bovillae  ; 
Et,  qui  nunc  nuUi,  maxima  turba  Gabi." 

Propert.  iv.  El.  I. 

"  Hujus  qui  trahitur  prsetextam  sumere  mavis  ; 
An  Fidenarum,  Gabiorumque  esse  potestas  ?  " 

Juvenal.  Sat.  x.  100. 

"  Quis  timet,  aut  timuit  gelida  Pneneste  ruinam  ; 
Aut  positis  nemorosa  inter  juga  Volsiniis  ;  aut 
Simplicibus  Gabiis." 

yuvenal.  Sat.  iii.  189. 

'* cum  jam  celebres  notique  poetoe 

Balneolum  Gabiis,  Romse  conducere  funics 
Tentarent." 

Juvenal.  Sat,  vii.  4. 

The  Gabini  had  a  peculiar  mode  of  girding  the  toga, 

*  See  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Roman  Geography. 


i6o  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

which  gave  more  freedom  to  the  limbs,  and  which  was  found 
useful  when  hurrying  to  battle  from  a  sacrifice.  Virgil 
alludes  to  it : — 

"Ipse,  Quirinali  trabea  cinctuque  Gabino 
Insignis,  reserat  stridentia  limina  consul." 

^n.  vii.  612. 

Under  Tiberius  the  town  had  a  slight  revival,  which  was 
increased  under  Hadrian,  who  adorned  it  with  handsome 
public  buildings,  colleges,  and  an  aqueduct.  In  the  first 
ages  of  Christianity  it  became  the  seat  of  a  bishopric  (a  list 
of  its  bishops  from  a.d.  465  to  879  is  given  in  Ughelli's 
//  alia  Sera),  but  it  was  finally  ruined  when  Astolphus 
ravaged  the  Campagna,  at  the  head  of  6000  Lombards.  It 
is  only  a  mile's  walk  or  ride  from  the  Osteria  del  Osa  (turn- 
ing left)  to  the  Castello  del  Osa  or  Collatia,  for  which  see 
chapter  ix. 

Continuing  along  the  Via  Praenestina,  much  of  the  old 
pavement  is  visible.  This  is  most  perfect  at  Cavamonte 
(seven  miles  beyond  Gabii),  where  the  road  passes  through 
a  deep  cutting  in  the  rocks  which  guard  the  valley  of  Galli- 
cano.  The  cliffs  on  either  side  of  the  road  reach  a  height 
of  70  feet,  and  are  most  picturesquely  overhung  mth  shrubs 
and  ivy.  The  road,  which  is  generally  only  14  feet  wide, 
here  has  a  width  of  27  feet.  After  passing  through  Cava- 
monte, the  Via  Pr^nestina  ascends  towards  Praeneste  by  the 
Convent  of  the  Buon  Pastore. 

On  the  left  of  the  road  (19  miles  from  Rome)  is  the  village 
of  Gallicano,  supposed  to  occupy  the  site  of  the  ancient 
Pedum,  whose  name  is  familiar  to  readers  of  Horace,  from 
the  epistle  to  Albius  Tibullus. 


ZAGAROLA.  i6i 

"  Albi,  nostrorum  sermonum  candide  judex, 
Quid  nunc  te  dicam  facere  in  regione  Pedana  ?  " 

i.  Ep.  iv. 

The  present  name  is  derived  from  Ovinias  Gallicanus, 

Prefect   of  Rome   in  the   time  of  Constantine,  who  was 

afterwards  canonized  for  his  charities,  and  in  whose  honour 

the  Hospital  in  the  Trastevere  was  dedicated.     The  place 

was  formerly  a  fief  of  the  Colonnas,  and  now  gives  a  title  to 

the  Rospigliosi. 

"The  towns  of  Scaptia,  Ortona,  and  Querquetula  lay  somewhere 
in  this  neighbourhood.  Scaptia  was  one  of  the  cities  which  conspired  to 
restore  the  Tarquins  to  the  Roman  throne.  It  gave  a  name  Jto  one  of  the 
tribes  at  Rome,  but  in  Pliny's  time  had  fallen  entirely  into  ruins.  The 
site  of  Passerano  has  been  fixed  upon  as  the  representative  of  Scaptia 
by  most  modem  topographers.  But  this  opinion  rests  upon  a  false 
reading  in  Festus,  and  must  be  rejected.  Ortona  lay  on  the  frontier, 
between  the  Latins  and  ^quians,  but  belonged  to  the  Latins.  It  seems 
to  have  been  near  Corbio,  and  on  the  further  side  of  Mount  Algidus. 
The  site  of  Querquetula  is  entirely  unknown.  Cell  and  Nibby  place  it 
At  Corcolo,  arguing  from  the  similarity  of  the  name.  Corcolo  is  four 
miles  from  Gallicano,  and  six  from  Zagarolo,  at  a  point  where  there  is 
an  artificial  dyke  separating  a  small  hill  firom  the  neighbouring  plateau. 
There  are  traces  of  ancient  roads  converging  to  this  spot  from  Prse- 
neste,  Castellaccio,  and  Gallicano." — Burn,  The  Roman  Campagna. 

Zagarola,  21  miles  from  Rome,  will  scarcely  be  made  the 
object  of  an  especial  excursion,  but  may  be  visited  by  those 
who  drive  to  Palestrina.  It  is  a  curious  old  mediaeval  town 
chiefly  built  by  the  Colonnas,  in  whose  wars  it  was  twice 
sacked,  first  by  Boniface  VIII.,  and  afterwards  by  Cardinal 
Vitelieschi  in  the  reign  of  Eugenius  IV.  It  now  gives  a 
ducal  title  to  the  Rospigliosi.  Many  Roman  antiquities 
found  in  the  neighbourhood  are  built  up  into  the  walls  and 
houses,  and  over  the  Roman  gate  is  a  seated  statue  of  Jupi- 
ter. The  commission  for  the  revision  of  the  Vulgate  under 
Gregory  XIV.  met  in  the  palace  of  Zagarolo. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CERVARA,  LUNGHEZZA,  AND  COLLATIA. 

(It  is  a  short  and  pleasant  afternoon's  drive  to  Cervara,  but  a  day 
must  be  given  to  Lunghezza  and  Collatia,  though,  if  visited  on  horse- 
back, they  may  be  combined  with  the  ruins  of  Gabii. ) 

AFTER  passing  the  Torre  degli  Schiavi,  the  road  to  Lun- 
ghezza turns  oif  to  the  left.  On  the  right  is  the  Tor 
Tre  Teste,  on  the  left  we  pass  close  to  a  fountain  of  the 
Acqua  Vergine.  On  the  left  is  now  seen  the  great  castel- 
lated farm  of  the  Borgheses  called  Cervaretto,  rising  above 
the  low  marshy  ground.  The  field-road  which  passes  in 
front  of  the  further  side  of  this  castle,  leads  on  a  mile  further 
to  another  Campagna  castle,  Cervara,  a  most  picturesque 
red-brick  tower  with  some  farm  buildings  attached  to  it. 

Close  to  this,  are  the  famous  Caves  of  Cervara,  which  are 
said  to  have  been  formed  when  excavating  the  materials  for 
the  Coliseum.  It  is  a  strange  place.  You  are  quite  uncon- 
scious of  any  break  in  the  wide  grassy  Campagna,  till  you 
suddenly  find  yourself  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  with  deep, 
narrow,  miniature  ravines  yawning  beneath  you  and  winding 
in  all  directions  till  they  emerge  on  a  meadow  near  the  Anio. 
And  when  you  descend  into  these,  openings  in  the  rocks 


CERVARA  AND  RUSTIC  A. 


163 


beneath  lead  into  vast  chambers  opening  one  upon  another, 
their  roof  supported  by  huge  pillars  of  natural  rock,  while 
the  floor  is  deep  in  sand,  and  long  tresses  of  ivy,  and 
branches  of  flowering  laurestinus,  wave  in  upon  the  gloom, 
whenever  the  light  streams  in  through  a  rift  overhead.  One 
point  is  especially  charming,  where  the  Anio  and  the 
hills  beyond  it  are  seen  through  a  great  arch  of  natural  rock. 
In  May  these  solitudes  are  enlivened  by  the  revels  of  the 
Festa  degli  Artisfi,  which  is  well  worth  seeing.  Some  his- 
torical scene,  such  as  the  triumph  of  Vitellius  (as  in  1870),  is 
taken  as  the  groundwork  of  a  costumed  procession, — tourna- 
ments are  held  in  the  meadow  near  the  Anio,  wonderful 
cavalcades  of  Arabs  in  rich  dresses  ride  waving  their  long 
spears  through  the  Petra-like  ravines,  and  a  bellowing 
Dragon  vomiting  forth  fire  and  smoke  emerges  from  the 
caves,  and  is  slain  by  an  imaginary  S.  George  in  the  rock- 
girt  hollow. 


Cervara. 


About  two  miles  beyond  Cervara,  the  tall  tower  of  Rustica 
rises  above  the  swellings  of  the  Campagna.  It  stands  on 
the  very  edge  of  the  Anio  in  a  beautiful  situation,  and  is 
well  worth  visiting.  It  was  once  the  property  of  Elius, 
father  of  the  Emperor  Lucius  Verus,  who  was  adopted  by 
Hadrian  as  his  successor.     Rustica  is  most  easily  seen  from 


1 64  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  reached  by  the  road  to  Tivoli, 
turning  off  to  the  right  beyond  Ponte  Mammolo.  Return- 
ing to  the  Via  CoUatina,  a  tolerable  road  leads  us  over  an 
uninhabited  part  of  the  Campagna  for  about  five  miles 
further.  Then  it  descends  into  the  valley  of  the  Anio, 
which  is  here  bordered  with  willows.  The  great  castle  or 
rather  fortified  farm  of  Lunghezza  is  seen  on  the  opposite 
slope,  backed  by  the  purple  peaks  of  the  Sabina.  This  was 
an  ancient  possession  of  the  Strozzi  family,  but  has  lately 
been  sold  to  the  Duke  of  Grazioli,  one  of  the  richest  of  the 
modern  Roman  nobles. 

"  C'est  le  bon  plaisir  des  souverains  pontifes  qui  a  fait  entrer  quelques 
riches  parvenus  dans  raristocratie  romaine. 

"  Un  boulanger  du  nom  de  Grazioli  fait  une  grande  fortune,  et  le 
pape  ordonne  qu'il  soit  inscrit  sur  la  liste  du  patriciat  romain.  II  achete 
une  baronnie  et  le  pape  le  fait  baron.  II  achete  un  duche  et  le  voila 
due  Grazioli.     Son  fils  epouse  une  Lante  de  la  Rovere." — About. 

There  is  little  remarkable  about  Lunghezza,  except  its 
situation,  but  some  hours  may  be  pleasantly  spent  in  sketch- 
ing on  the  river-bank  lower  down  the  valley. 

A  pleasant  walk  of  about  two  miles  up  the  stream  of  the 
Osa  (turning  to  the  left  in  descending  from  the  Castle) 
leads  along  fields  and  through  a  wood,  filled  in  spring 
with  the  snow-drops  which  are  sold  in  Rome  in  such  abund- 
ance, to  the  ruined  castle  called  Castellaccio  or  Castello 
deW  Osa,  which  occupies  a  declivity  of  lava  on  the  left  of 
the  stream. 

It  is  disputed  whether  Castel  dell'  Osa  or  Lunghezza  is  the 
site  of  the  famous  Collatia.  Beneath  the  ruined  castle  near 
the  Osa  some  fragments  of  ancient  wall,  in  regular  blocks, 
may  be  observed,  but  this  is  the  only  fact  in  favour  of  its 
being  the  site  of  the  home  of  Lucretia,  while  Sir  W.  Cell, 


COLLA  TIA. 


Ids 


in  favour  of  Lunghezza,  draws  attention  to  the  existence  of 
the  Via  Collatina  (apparently  leading  direct  to  Lunghezza), 


Castello  dell'  Osa. 

which  would  have  been  unnecessary  had  Collatia  occupied 
a  site  such  as  Castel  dell'  Osa,  which  is  only  two  miles  from 
Gabii,  as  a  slight  turning  from  the  Via  Gabina  would  have 
led  to  it.  Lunghezza  accords  much  better  than  Castel  dell' 
Osa  with  the  description  of  Virgil : — 

"CoUatinas  imponent  montibus  arces." 

^n.  vi.  774. 

Virgil  and  Dionysius  notice  Collatia  as  a  colony  of  Alba- 
Longa.  It  was  reduced  into  subjection  to  Rome  in  the  reign 
of  Tarquinius  Priscus,  who  established  a  garrison  there,  and 
appointed  his  nephew  Egerius  as  its  governor,  who  forthwith 
took,  and  transmitted  to  his  descendants,  the  name  of  Col- 
latinus.  His  daughter-in-law,  Lucretia,  was  residing  here 
during  the  siege  of  Ardea,  and  thus  Collatia  became  the 
scene  of  the  events  which  led  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Roman 
monarchy. 

•*  As  the  king's  sons  and  their  cousin  L.  Tarquinius  were  sitting  over 
their  cups  at  Ardea,  a  dispute  arose  about  the  virtue  of  their  wives. 
This  cousin,  sumamed  CoUatinus,  from  Collatia,  where  he  dwelt  as  an 


i66  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

independent  prince,  was  the  grandson  of  Aruns,  the  elder  brother  of  the 
first  Tarquinius,  after  whose  death  Lucumo  removed  to  Rome.  Nothing 
was  doing  in  the  field  :  so  they  straightway  mounted  their  horses  to 
visit  their  homes  by  surprise.  At  Rome,  the  princesses  were  revelling 
at  a  banquet,  surrounded  by  flowers  and  wine.  From  thence  the  youths 
hastened  to  CoUatia,  where  at  the  late  hour  of  the  night  Lucretia  the 
wife  of  Collatinus  was  spinning  amid  the  circle  of  her  handmaids. 

**.  .  .  The  next  day  Sextus,  the  eldest  of  the  king's  sons,  returned  to 
Collatia,  and,  according  to  the  rights  of  gentle  hospitality,  was  lodged 
in  his  kinsman's  house.  At  the  dead  of  night  he  entered  sword-in-hand 
into  the  matron's  chamber,  and  by  threatening  that  he  would  lay  a  slave 
with  his  throat  cut  beside  her  body,  would  pretend  to  have  avenged  her 
husband's  honour,  and  would  make  her  memory  for  ever  loathsome  to 
the  object  of  her  love,  wrung  from  her  what  the  fear  of  death  could  not 
obtain. 

"Who,  after  Livy,  can  tell  of  Lucretia's  despair?  She  besought  her 
father  and  her  husband  to  come  to  her,  for  that  horrible  things  had 
taken  place.  Lucretius  came,  accompanied  by  P.  Valerius,  who  after- 
wards gained  the  name  of  Publicola ;  Collatinus  with  the  outcast  Brutus. 
They  found  the  disconsolate  wife  in  the  garb  of  mourning,  sitting  in  a 
trance  of  sorrow.  They  heard  the  tale  of  the  crime,  and  swore  to  avenge 
her.  (Saying,  '  I  am  not  guilty,  yet  must  I  too  share  the  punishment,  lest 
any  should  think  that  they  may  be  false  to  their  husbands  and  live,' 
Lucretia  drew  a  knife  from  her  bosom,  and  stabbed  herself  to  the  heart.) 
Over  the  body  of  Lucretia,  as  over  a  victim,  the  vows  of  vengeance  were 
renewed.  Her  avengers  carried  the  corpse  into  the  market-place  of 
CoUatia.  The  citizens  renounced  Tarquinius,  and  promised  obedience 
to  the  deliverers.  Their  young  men  attended  the  funeral  procession  to 
Rome.  Here  with  one  voice  the  decree  of  the  citizens  deposed  the  last 
king  from  his  throne,  and  pronounced  sentence  of  banishment  against 
him  and  his  family." — Niebuhr's  Hist,  of  Rome. 

Silius  Italicus  notices  Collatia  as  the  birth-place  of  the 
elder  Brutus  : — 

"...  altrix  casti  Collatia  Bruti." 

viii.  363. 

In  the  time  of  Strabo  (v.  229)  Collatia  was  little  more  than 
a  village.  It  is  only  two  miles  from  the  ruins  to  Gabii,  up  the 
valley  of  the  Osa. 


CHAPTER  X. 
ANTEMN^  AND  FIDENiE. 

(This  is  a  pleasant  afternoon's  drive.  Pedestrians  may  vary  the  way 
by  going  first  to  the  Acqua  Acetosa  (see  IVa/ks  in  Rome,  ii.  420),  and 
turning  to  the  right  across  the  hill  of  Antemnae  to  the  Ponte  Salara. ) 

LEAVING  the  Porta  Salara,  by  which  Alaric  entered 
Rome  (August  24,  410),  the  Via  Salara  runs  between 
the  walls  of  half-deserted  villas  till  it  reaches  the  brow  of  the 
hill  above  the  Anio.  Here,  on  the  left,  about  two  miles 
from  the  city,  is  the  green  hill-side,  which  was  once  the  gite 
of  the  "Turrigerae  Antemnae  "*  of  Virgil,  one  of  the  most 
ancient  cities  of  Italy. 

*' Antemnaque  prisco 
Crustumio  prior." 

Silius  Hal.  viii.  367. 

*'  Not  a  tree — not  a  shrub  on  its  turf-grown  surface — not  a  house — not 
a  ruin — not  one  stone  upon  another,  to  tell  you  the  site  had  been 
inhabited.  Yet  here  once  stood  Antemnae,  the  city  of  many  towers. 
Not  a  trace  remains  above-ground.  Even  the  broken  pottery,  that 
infallible  indicator  of  bygone  civilization,  which  marks  the  site  and 
determines  the  limits  of  habitation  on  many  a  now  desolate  spot  of 
classic  ground,  is  here  so  overgrown  with  herbage  that  the  eye  of  an 
antiquary  would  alone  detect  it.  It  is  a  site  strong  by  nature,  and  well 
adapted  for  a  city,  as  cities  then  were ;  for  it  is  scarcely  larger  than  the 
Palatine  Hill,  which,  though  at  first  it  embraced  the  whole  of  Rome, 
was  afterwards  too  small  for  a  single  palace.  It  has  a  peculiar  interest 
as  the  site  of  one  of  the  three  cities  of  Sabina,  whose  daughters,  ravished 

*  /En.  vii.  630. 


i68  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

by  the  followers  of  Romulus,  became  the  mothers  of  the  Roman 
race. "  * — Dennis. 

"  It  would  seem  that  the  high  point  nearest  the  road  was  the  citadel ; 
and  the  descent  of  two  roads,  now  scarcely  perceptible,  one  toward 
Fidenae  and  the  bridge,  and  the  other  toward  Rome,  marks  the  site  of 
a  gate.  On  the  other  side  of  the  knoll  of  the  citadel  is  a  cave,  with 
signs  of  artificial  cutting  in  the  rock,  being  a  sepulchre  under  the  walls. 
There  was  evidently  a  gate  also  in  the  hollow  which  runs  from  the 
platform  of  the  city  to  the  junction  of  the  Aniene  and  the  Tiber, 
where  there  is  now  a  little  islet.  Probably  there  was  another  gate 
toward  the  meadows,  on  the  side  of  the  Acqua  Acetosa,  and 
another  opposite ;  and  from  these  two  gates,  which  the  nature  of  the 
soil  points  out,  one  road  must  have  run  up  a  valley,  tending  in  the 
direction  of  the  original  Palatium  of  Rome ;  and  the  other  must  have 
passed  by  a  ferry  toward  Veil,  up  the  valley  near  the  present  Torre  di 
Quinto.  It  is  not  uninteresting  to  observe  how  a  city,  destroyed  at  a 
period  previous  to  what  is  now  called  that  of  authentic  history,  should, 
without  even  one  stone  remaining,  preserve  indications  of  its  former 
existence.  From  the  height  of  Antemnae,  is  a  fine  view  of  the  field  of 
battle  between  the  Romans  and  the  Fidenates,  whence  Tullus  Hostilius 
despatched  M.  Horatius  to  destroy  the  city  of  Alba  Longa.  The 
isthmus,  where  the  two  roads  from  Palatium  and  Veil  met,  unites  with 
the  city  a  higher  eminence,  which  may  have  been  another  citadel.  The 
beauty  of  the  situation  is  such,  that  it  is  impossible  it  should  not  have 
been  selected  as  the  site  of  a  villa  in  the  flourishing  times  of  Rome. 

"The  spot  is  frequently  adverted  to  in  the  early  periods  of  history. 
Servius,  Varro,  and  Festus,  agree  that  Antemnae  was  so  called,  '  quasi 
ante  amnem posita.^  " — Gell. 

Just  below  the  site  of  Antemnas  the  Via  Salara  crossed 
the  Anio  by  a  fine  old  bridge  built  by  Narses  in  the  sixth 
century  upon  the  site  of  the  famous  Fonte  Salara,  where 
Manlius  fought  with  the  Gaul.  The  bridge  was  blown  up 
during  the  panic  caused  by  the  approach  of  Garibaldi  and 
the  insurgents  in  1867  (see  Walks  in  Rome,  ii.  19),  and  the 
ruins,  which  were  of  the  greatest  interest,  were  destroyed  by 
the  Government  in  1874.     Beyond  the  ugly  modern  bridge 

*  The  other  two  were  Csecina  and  Crustumium. 


TORRE  S A  LARA.  169 

is  a  great  mediaeval  tower,  Torre  Salara^  built  upon  a  Roman 
tomb,  which  is  itself  used  as  an  Osteria. 

The  road  now  runs  for  several  miles  through  a  plain  called 
the  Prato  Rotondo,  the  scene  of  the  battle  which  led  to  the 
destruction  of  Alba. 

When  the  combat  between  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii  was  agreed 
upon,  "the  compact  had  been,  that  the  nation  whose  champions  should 
be  victorious,  was  to  command  the  obedience  and  ser\'ice  of  the  other  : 
and  the  Albans  fulfilled  it.  When  Fidenoe,  however,  having  driven  out 
or  overpowered  the  Roman  colonists,  was  defending  itself  with  the  help 
of  the  Veientines  against  Tullus  and  the  Romans,  in  the  battle  that 
ensued,  the  Romans  stood  against  the  Veientines  :  on  the  right,  over 
igainst  the  Fidenates,  were  the  Albans  under  their  dictator  Mettius 
Fuffetius.  Faithless,  and  yet  irresolute,  he  drew  them  off  from  the 
conflict  to  the  hills.  The  Etruscans,  seeing  that  he  did  not  keep  his 
engagement,  and  suspecting  that  he  meant  to  attack  their  flank,  gave 
way,  and  fled  along  his  line ;  when  the  twofold  traitor  fell  upon  them  in 
their  disorder,  in  the  hope  of  cloaking  his  treachery.  The  Roman  Kmg 
feigned  himself  deceived.  On  the  following  day  the  two  armies  were 
summoned  to  receive  their  praises  and  rewards.  The  Albans  came 
without  their  arms,  were  surrounded  by  the  Roman  troops,  and  lieard 
the  sentence  of  the  inexorable  King ;  that,  as  their  dictator  had  broken 
his  faith  both  to  Rome  and  to  the  Etruscans,  he  should  in  like  manner 
be  torn  in  pieces  by  horses  driven  in  opposite  directions,  while,  as  for 
themselves  and  their  city,  they  should  be  removed  to  Rome,  and  Alba 
should  be  destroyed." — Niebuhr^  i.  349. 

"On  the  same  field  was  fought  many  a  bloody  fight  between  the 
Romans  and  Etruscans.  Here,  in  the  year  of  Rome  317,  the  Fidenates, 
with  their  allies  of  Veii  and  Falerii,  were  again  defeated,  and  Lars 
Tolumnius,  chief  of  the  Veientines,  was  slain.  And  a  few  years  later, 
Mamilius  ^milius  and  Cornelius  Cossus,  the  heroes  of  the  former  fight, 
routed  the  same  foes  in  the  same  plain,  and  captured  the  city  of  Fidenae. 
Here,  too,  Annibal  seems  to  have  pitched  his  camp  when  he  marched 
from  Capua  to  surprise  the  City." — Dennis. 

A  low  range  of  hills  now  skirts  the  road  on  the  right,  and 
a  few  crumbling  bits  of  wall  near  some  old  bay-trees  are 
pointed  out  as  fragments  of  the  Villa  of  Phaon,  the  freed- 
man  of  Nero,  where  the  emperor  died. 


I70  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

"The  Hundred  Days  of  Nero  were  drawing  rapidly  to  a  close.  He 
was  no  longer  safe  in  the  city.  .  .  He  would  have  thrown  himself  into 
the  Tiber,  but  his  courage  failed  him.  He  must  have  time,  he  said, 
and  repose  to  collect  his  spirits  for  suicide,  and  his  freedman  Phaon  at 
last  offered  him  his  villa  in  the  suburbs,  four  miles  from  the  city.  In 
undress  and  bare-footed,  throwing  a  rough  cloak  over  his  shoulders,  and 
a  kerchief  across  his  face,  he  glided  through  the  doors,  mounted  a  horse, 
and,  attended  by  Sporus  and  three  others,  passed  the  city  gates  with 
the  dawn  of  the  summer  morning.  The  Nomentane  road  led  him 
beneath  the  wall  of  the  praetorians,  whom  he  might  hear  uttering  curses 
against  him,  and  pledging  vows  to  Galba  ;  and  the  early  travellers  from 
the  country  asked  him  as  they  met.  What  news  of  Nero?  or  remarked 
to  one  another.  These  men  are  pursuing  the  tyrant.  Thunder  and 
lightning,  and  a  shock  of  earthquake,  added  horror  to  the  moment. 
Nero's  horse  started  at  a  dead  body  on  the  road-side,  the  kerchief  fell 
from  his  face,  and  a  praetorian  passing  by  recognized  and  saluted  him. 
At  the  fourth  milestone  the  party  quitted  the  highway,  alighted  from 
their  horses,  and  scrambled  on  foot  through  a  corn-brake,  laying  their 
own  cloaks  to  tread  on,  to  the  rear  of  the  promised  villa.  Phaon  now 
desired  Nero  to  crouch  in  a  sand-pit  hard  by,  while  he  contrived  to 
open  the  drain  from  the  bath-room,  and  so  admit  him  unperceived  ;  but 
he  vowed  he  would  not  go  alive,  as  he  said,  under-ground,  and  remained 
trembling  beneath  the  wall.  Taking  water  in  his  hand  from  a  puddle, 
This,  he  said,  is  the  famous  drink  of  Nero.  At  last  a  hole  was  made, 
through  which  he  crept  on  all  fours  into  a  narrow  chamber  of  the  house, 
and  there  threw  himself  on  a  pallet.  The  coarse  bread  that  was  offered 
him  he  could  not  eat,  but  swallowed  a  little  tepid  water.  Still  he 
lingered,  his  companions  urging  him  to  seek  refuge,  without  delay,  from 
the  insults  about  to  be  heaped  on  him.  He  ordered  them  to  dig  a 
grave,  and  himself  lay  down  to  give  the  measure ;  he  desired  them  to 
collect  bits  of  marble  to  decorate  his  sepulchre,  and  prepare  water  to 
cleanse  and  wood  to  burn  his  corpse,  sighing  meanwhile,  and  muttering, 
What  an  artist  to  perish  !  Presently  a  slave  of  Phaon's  brought  papers 
from  Rome,  which  Nero  snatched  from  him,  and  read  that  the  senate 
had  proclaimed  him  an  enemy,  and  decreed  his  death,  in  the  ancient 
fashion.  He  asked  what  that  was  ?  and  was  informed  that  the  culprit 
was  stripped,  his  head  placed  in  a  fork,  and  his  body  smitten  with  a 
stick  till  death.  Terrified  at  this  announcement,  he  took  two  daggers 
from  his  bosom,  tried  their  edge  one  after  the  other,  and  again  laid  them 
down,  alleging  that  the  moment  was  not  yet  arrived.  Then  he  called  on 
Sporus  to  commence  his  funeral  lamentations ;  then  he  implored  some 
of  the  party  to  set  him  the  example ;  once  and  again  he  reproached 


DEATH  OF  NERO.  171 

himself  with  his  own  timidity.  Fie!  Nero,  fie!  he  muttered  in  Greek, 
Courage,  man  !  come,  rouse  thee  !  Suddenly  was  heard  the  trampling  of 
horsemen,  sent  to  seize  the  culprit  alive.  .  Then  at  last,  with  a  verse  of 
Homer  hastily  ejaculated,  Sound  of  swift-footed  steeds  strikes  on  my  ears, 
he  placed  a  weapon  to  his  breast,  and  the  slave  Epaphroditus  drove  it 
home.  The  blow  was  scarcely  struck,  when  the  centurion  rushed  in, 
and  thrusting  his  cloak  against  the  wound,  pretended  he  was  come  to  help 
him.  The  dying  wretch  could  only  murmur.  Too  late,  and.  Is  this  your 
fidelity?  and  expired  with  a  horrid  stare  on  his  countenance.  He  had 
adjured  his  attendants  to  burn  his  body,  and  not  let  the  foe  bear  off  his 
head ;  and  this  was  now  allowed  him  :  the  corpse  was  consumed  with 
haste  and  imperfectly,  but  at  least  without  mutilation." — Merivale's 
Hist,  of  Romans  under  the  Empire,  vii.  45. 

**  Neron  vit  que  tout  etait  perdu.  Son  esprit  faux  ne  lui  sugg^rait 
que  des  idees  grotesques  :  se  revetir  d'habits  de  deuil,  aller  haranguer  le 
peuple  en  cet  accoutrement,  employer  toute  sa  puissance  scenique  pour 
exciter  la  compassion,  et  obtenir  ainsi  le  pardon  du  passe,  ou,  faute  de 
raieux,  la  prefecture  de  I'Egypte.  II  ecrivit  son  discours;  on  lui  fit 
remarquer  qu'avant  d'arriver  au  forum,  il  serait  mis  en  pieces.  II  se 
coucha  :  se  reveillant  au  milieu  de  la  nuit,  il  se  trouva  sans  gardes ; 
on  pillait  dej^  sa  chambre.  II  sort,  frappe  a  diverses  portes,  personne 
ne  repond.  II  rentre,  veut  mourir,  demande  le  mirmillon  Spiculus, 
brillant  tueur,  une  des  celebrites  de  I'amphitheatre.  Tout  le  monde 
s'^carte.  II  sort  de  nouveau,  erre  seul  dans  les  rues,  va  pour  se  jeter 
dans  le  Tibre,  revient  sur  ses  pas.  Le  monde  semblait  faire  le  vide 
autour  de  lui.  Phaon,  son  affranchi,  lui  offrit  alors  pour  asile  sa  villa 
situee  entre  la  voie  Salaria  et  la  voie  Nomentane,  vers  la  quatrieme 
borne  milliare.  Le  malheureux,  k  peine  vetu,  convert  d'un  mechant 
manteau,  monte  sur  un  cheval  miserable,  le  visage  enveloppe  pour 
n'etre  pas  reconnu,  partit  accompagne  de  trois  ou  quatre  de  ses  affran- 
chis,  parmi  lesquels  etaient  Phaon,  Sporus,  Epaphrodite,  son  secretaire. 
II  ne  faisait  pas  encore  jour ;  en  sortant  par  la  porte  Colline,  il 
entendit  au  camp  des  pretoriens,  pres  duquel  il  passait,  les  cris  des 
soldats  qui  le  maudissaient  et  proclamaient  Galba.  Un  ecart  de  son 
cheval,  amene  par  la  puanteur  d'un  cadavre  jete  sur  le  chemin,  le  fit 
reconnaitre.  II  put  cependant  atteindre  la  villa  de  Phaon,  en  se  glis- 
sant  \  plat  ventre  sous  les  broussailles  et  en  se  cachant  derri^re  les 
roseaux. 

* '  Son  esprit  drolatique,  son  argot  de  gamin  ne  I'abandonn^rent  pas. 
On  voulut  le  blottir  dans  un  trou  \  Pouzzolane  comme  on  en  voit 
beaucoup  en  ces  parages.     Ce  fut  pour  lui  I'occasion  d'un  mot  i  effet  I 


172  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

'Quelle  destinee,'  dit-il ;  '  aller  vivant  sous  terre!'  Ses  reflexions 
etaient  comme  un  feu  roulant  de  citations  classiques,  entremelees  des 
lourdes  plaisanteries  d'un  bobeche  aux  abois.  II  avait  sur  chaque 
circonstance  une  reminiscence  litteraire,  une  froide  antithese  :  '  Celui 
qui  autrefois  etait  fier  de  sa  suite  nombreuse  n'a  plus  maintenant  que 
trois  affranchis  ?'  Par  moments,  le  souvenir  de  ses  victimes  lui  revenait, 
mais  n'aboutissait  qu'^  des  figures  de  rhetorique,  jamais  k  un  acte 
moral  de  repentir,  Le  comedien  survivait  k  tout.  Sa  situation  n'etait 
pour  lui  qu'un  drame  de  plus,  un  drame  qu'il  avait  repete.  Se  rap- 
pelant  les  roles  oti  il  avait  figure  des  parricides,  des  princes  reduits  a 
I'etat  de  mendiants,  il  remarquit  que  maintenant  il  jouait  tout  cela  pour 
son  compte,  et  chantonnait  ce  vers  qu'un  tragique  avait  mit  dans  la 
bouche  d'QEdipe  : 

Ma  femme,  ma  mere,  mon  pere 
Prononcent  mon  arret  de  mort. 

Incapable  d'une  pensee  serieuse,  il  voulut  qu'on  creusat  sa  fosse  a  la 
taille  de  son  corps,  fit  apporter  des  morceaux  de  marbre,  de  I'eau,  du 
bois  pour  ses  funerailles  ;  tout  cela,  pleurant  et  disant  :  *  Quel  artiste 
va  mourir  ? ' 

"  Le  courrierde  Phaon,  cependant,  apporte  unedepeche  ;  Neronla  lui 
arrache,  II  lit  que  le  senat  I'a  declare  ennemi  public  et  I'a  condamne  a 
etre  puni  '  selon  la  vieille  coutume.' — 'Quelle  est  cette  coutume  ? '  de- 
mande-t-il.  On  lui  repond  que  la  tete  du  patient  tout  nue  est  engagee 
dans  une  fourche,  qu'alors  on  le  frappe  de  verges  jusqu'a  ce  que  mort 
s'ensuive,  puis  que  le  corps  est  traine  par  un  croc  et  jete  dans  le  Tibre.  II 
fremit,  prend  deux  poignards  qu'il  avait  sur  lui,  en  essaye  la  pointe,  les 
resserre,  disant  que  I'heure  fatale  n'etait  pas  encore  venu  ?  II  engageait 
wSporus  a  commencer  sa  nenie  funebre,  essayait  de  nouveau  de  se  tuer,  ne 
pouvait.  Sa  gaucherie,  cette  espece  de  talent  qu'il  avait  pour  faire 
vibrer  faux  toutes  les  fibres  de  I'arae,  ce  rire  a  la  fois  bete  et  infernal, 
cette  balourdise  pretentieuse  qui  fait  ressembler  sa  vie  entiere  aux 
miaulements  d'un  sabbat  grotesque,  atteignaient  au  sublime  de  la 
fadeur.  II  ne  pouvait  reussir  a  se  tuer.  '  N'y  aura-t'il  done  personne 
ici,  demanda-t-il,  pour  me  donner  I'exemple  ? '  II  redoublait  de 
citations,  se  parlait  en  grec,  faisait  des  bouts  de  vers.  Tout-a-coup  on 
entend  le  bruit  du  detachement  de  cavalerie  qui  vient  pour  le  saisir 
vivant. 

"  '  Le  pas  des  lourds  clievaux  me  frappe  les  oreilles,'  dit-il.  Epaph- 
rodite  alors  pesa  sur  le  poignard  et  le  lui  fit  entrei  dans  la  gorge.  Le 
centurion  arrive  presque  au  meme  moment,  veut  arreter  le  sang, 
cherche  a  faire  croire  qu'il  vient  le  sauver.    '  Trop  tard  ! '  dit  le  mourant, 


CAS  TEL  GIUBELEO. 


173 


dont  les  yeux  sortaient  de  la  tete  et  gla9aient  d'horreur.  *  Voila  oii  en 
est  la  fidelite  ! '  ajouta-t-il  en  expirant.  Ce  fut  son  meilleur  trait 
comique.  Neron  laissant  tomber  une  plainte  melancholique  sur  la 
mechancete  de  son  siecle,  sur  la  disposition  de  la  bonne  foi  et  de  la 
vertu  I  -.  .  .  .  Applaudissons.  La  drame  est  complet,  Une  seule  fois, 
nature  aux  mille  visages,  tu  as  su  trouver  un  acteur  digne  d'un  pareil 
rdle." — Ernest  Renan,  ^  V Antechrist' 


Castel  Giubeleo. 


On  the  left  of  the  road  now  rises  an  almost  isolated  hill, 
overlooking  the  valley  of  the  Tiber,  called  Castel  Giubeleo ,  from 
the  farm-buildings  upon  it,  which  were  erected  by  Boniface 
VIII.  in  the  year  of  Jubilee.  This  hill  is  believed  to  have 
been  the  arx  of  ancient  Fidenae.  Towards  the  river  it  is 
very  steep,  but  it  is  united  by  a  kind  of  isthmus  to  the  high 
table-land,  where  the  rest  of  the  city  is  supposed  to  have 
stood. 

"Dionysius,  who  is  generally  an  excellent  antiquary,  says  that 
Fiden?e  was  an  Alban  colony,  founded  at  the  same  time  with  Nomentum 
and  Crustumerium,  the  eldest  of  three  emigrant  brothers  building 
Fidenae.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  great  mass  of  the  original  inhabitants 
were  Etruscans,  for  it  appears,  from  Livy  (lib.  i.  27),  that  only  a  portion 
of   the  inhabitants    '  (ut   qui   coloni  additi   Romanis   essent)    Latin^ 


174  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

sciebant.'  The  same  author  elsewhere  relates,  that  when  the  Romans 
wanted  a  spy  upon  the  Fidenates,  they  were  obliged  to  employ  a  person 
who  had  been  educated  at  Caere,  and  had  learned  the  language  and 
writing  of  Etruria  :  and  in  another  place  (lib.  i.  15)  he  expressly  says, 
'  Fidenates  quoque  Etrusci  fuerunt. '  The  Fidenates  were  the  constant 
allies  of  the  Veientes,  with  whom  they  were  probably  connected  by  race. 

**  *  The  city,'  says  Dionysius,  '  was  in  its  glory  in  the  time  of  Romulus, 
by  whom  it  was  taken  and  colonized  ;  the  Fidenates  having  seized 
certain  boats  laden  with  corn  by  the  Crustumerini  for  the  use  of  the 
Romans,  as  they  passed  down  the  Tiber  under  the  walls  of  Fidenae.  * 
Livy  (lib.  iv.  22)  calls  Fidense  *  urbs  alta  et  munita ; '  and  says,  *  neque 
scalis  capi  poterat,  neque  in  obsidione  vis  ulla  erat.'" — Gell. 

''Making  the  circuit  of  Castel  Giubeleo,  you  are  led  round  till  you 
meet  the  road,  where  it  issues  from  the  hollow  at  the  northern  angle  of 
the  city.  Besides  the  tombs  which  are  found  on  both  sides  of  the 
southern  promontory  of  the  city,  there  is  a  cave,  running  far  into  the 
rock,  and  branching  off  into  several  chambers  and  passages.  Fidenae, 
like  Veii,  is  said  to  have  been  taken  by  a  mine ;  and  this  cave  might 
be  supposed  to  indicate  the  spot,  being  subsequently  enlarged  into  its 
present  form,  had  not  Livy  stated  that  the  cuniculus  was  on  the 
opposite  side  of  Fidenae,  where  the  cliffs  were  loftiest,  and  that  it  was 
carried  into  the  Arx. 

"  The  ruin  of  Fidenae  is  as  complete  as  that  of  Antemnae.  The  hills 
on  which  it  stood  are  now  bare  and  desolate  :  the  shepherd  tends  his 
flock  on  its  slopes,  or  the  plough  furrows  its  bosom.  Its  walls  have 
utterly  disappeared  ;  not  one  stone  remains  on  another,  and  the  broken 
pottery  and  the  tombs  around  are  the  sole  evidences  of  its  existence. 
Yet,  as  Kibby  observes,  *  few  ancient  cities,  of  which  few  or  no  vestiges 
remain,  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  have  their  sites  so  well  determined 
as  Fidenae.'  Its  distance  of  forty  stadia,  or  five  miles,  from  Rome, 
mentioned  by  Dionysius,  and  its  position  relative  to  Veii,  to  the  Tiber, 
and  to  the  confluence  of  the  Anio  with  that  stream,  as  set  forth  by  Livy, 
leave  not  a  doubt  of  its  true  site. " — Dennis. 

"When  we  climb  the  promontory  of  Castel  Giubeleo,  and  look 
around,  standing  in  the  shelter  of  the  old  house,  what  a  strange 
prospect  opens  before  us  !  Once  how  full  of  life  and  conflict ! — now, 
how  entirely  a  prey  to  decay  and  solitude  !  At  our  feet  the  lordly 
Tiber  winds,  with  many  a  sweeping  curve,  away  to  Rome,  which 
bristles  in  the  horizon  with  its  domes  and  towers.  It  is  hardly  possible 
to  imagine  that  two  hundred  thousand  human  beings  are  living  and 
moving  two  leagues  off.     As  we  turn  the  eye  northwards  not  a  creature 


FIDENM,  175 

is  seen,  not  a  single  habitation  of  man.  Still,  how  memory  peoples  the 
waste  I  That  stream,  which,  marking  its  devious  valley  with  a  line  of 
bare  wintry  trees,  enters  the  Tiber  opposite  to  the  marshy  meadow 
under  our  feet,  is  the  Crimera — name  of  fatal  omen,  and  yet  eloquent  of 
heroic  daring.  On  that  stream  the  race  of  the  Fabii,  who  had  under- 
taken on  their  own  account  the  war  with  the  people  of  Veil,  perished, 
all,  to  the  number  of  306,  being  cut  off  by  an  ambush  of  the  enemy. 

••  Further  to  the  right,  another  stream,  more  faintly  marked,  comes 
into  the  Tiber  on  the  other  side.  That  is  the  Allia,  a  name  of  even 
more  fatal  sound  ;  for  on  its  banks  took  place  that  great  defeat  by  the 
Gauls  which  issued  in  the  taking  of  Rome. 

•'This  scene  surveyed,  we  descend  again  into  the  valley,  and  climb 
the  lower  opposite  hill,  which  was  evidently  the  site  of  Fidenae.  Here, 
as  in  several  other  places  in  the  Campagna,  we  find  mysterious  ranges 
of  rock-caverns  communicating  with  one  another,  and  opening  into 
vast  halls,  now  the  stalls  of  cattle.  It  would  seem  that  this  was  Fidenae. 
Yet,  how  should  these  holes  represent  a  city?  Whence  issued  the 
legions  that  met  the  legions  of  Rome  ?  Where  are  the  walls — where 
the  materials  of  the  houses  ?  One  ruin  only  appears  containing  any- 
thing like  masonry,  and  that  apparently  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Were 
these  caves,  hewn  in  the  tufa,  the  ancient  city?  Then  were  the 
inhabitants  little  more  than  savages ;  then  were  the  narratives  of  the 
historians  impossible  and  self-contradicting.  The  whole  matter  is 
wrapped  in  impenetrable  darkness." — Dean  Alford. 

Horace  speaks  of  Fidenae  as  if  it  was  almost  deserted  in 
his  time : — 

"  Scis  Lebedus  quam  sit  Gabiis  desertior  atque 
Fidenis  vicus — " 

I  Epist.  ii.  7. 

but  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius  it  appears  to  have  been  a 
municipal  town  : — 

"Hujus  qui  trahitur  praetextam  sumere  mavis, 
An  Fidenarum,  Gabiorumque  esse  potestas." 

yuvenalf  Sat.  x.  99. 

and  that  its  population  was  considerable  is  attested  by  the 

greatness  of  a  public  calamity  which  took  place  there. 

"  The  retirement  of  Tiberius  was  followed  by  a  succession  of  public 


176  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

calamities.  ...  A  private  speculator  had  undertaken,  as  a  matter  of 
profit,  one  of  the  magnificent  public  works,  which  in  better  times  it  was 
the  privilege  of  the  chief  magistrates  or  candidates  for  the  highest  offices 
to  construct  for  the  sake  of  glory  or  influence.  In  erecting  a  vast 
wooden  amphitheatre  in  the  suburban  city  of  Fidense,  he  had  omitted  the 
necessary  precaution  of  securing  a  solid  foundation ;  and  when  the 
populace  of  Rome,  unaccustomed,  from  the  parsimony  of  Tiberius,  to 
their  favourite  spectacles  at  home,  were  invited  to  the  diversions  of  the 
opening  day,  which  they  attended  in  immense  numbers,  the  mighty 
mass  gave  way  under  the  pressure,  and  covered  them  in  its  ruins.  Fifty 
thousand  persons,  or,  according  to  a  lower  computation,  not  less  than 
twenty  thousand,  men  and  women  of  all  ranks,  were  killed  or  injured 
by  this  catastrophe." — Merivale's  Hist,  of  the  Romans^  ch.  xiv. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MENTANA  AND  MONTE  ROTONDO. 

(This  is  a  delightful  day's  excursion  from  Rome,  and  comprises  much  of 
interest.  It  may  be  easily  made  in  a  carriage  with  two  horses.  Monte 
Rotondo  may  be  visited  between  two  trains  on  the  Ancona  line  of  rail- 
way.) 

THE  ancient  road  which  led  from  Rome  to  Nomentum 
was  called  the  Via  Nomentana.  It  issued  from  the 
city  by  the  now  closed  gate  of  the  Porta  Collina,  and  separat- 
ing from  the  Via  Salaria,  proceeded  almost  in  a  direct  Une  to 
its  destination.  The  modern  road  nearly  follows  the  Roman 
Way.  It  was  on  this  side  that  the  Italian  troops  approached 
Rome,  on  the  day  which  so  many  patriotic  spirits  regarded 
as  the  dawn  of  freedom  for  Rome. 

*'  The  blind,  and  the  people  in  prison. 

Souls  without  hope,  without  home. 
How  glad  were  they  all  that  heard  ! 
When  the  winged  white  flame  of  the  word 
Passed  over  men's  dust,  and  stirred 
Death  ;  for  Italia  was  risen, 

And  risen  her  light  upon  Rome. 

The  light  of  her  sword  in  the  gateway 

Shone,  an  unquenchable  flame, 
Bloodless,  a  sword  to  release, 
A  light  from  the  eyes  of  peace, 
To  bid  grief  utterly  cease. 
And  the  wrong  of  the  old  world  straightway 
i'ass  from  the  face  of  her  fame  : 
VOL.   I.  12 


1 78  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Hers,  whom  we  turn  to  and  cry  on, 

Italy,  mother  of  men  : 
From  the  sight  of  the  face  of  her  glory, 
At  the  sound  of  the  storm  of  her  story, 
That  the  sanguine  shadows  and  hoary 
Should  flee  from  the  foot  of  the  lion. 

Lion-like,  forth  of  his  den." 

Swinburne^  "  The  Halt  before  Rome.'* 

Below  the  basilica  of  S.  Agnese  (see  Walks  in  Rome^ 
ii.  26)  we  cross  the  Anio  by  the  picturesque  Ponte  Nomen- 
tana  or  Lomentana,  occupying  the  site  of  the  ancient  bridge-, 
but  in  itself  mediaeval,  with  forked  battlements.  The  green 
slopes  beyond  the  bridge  are  those  of  the  Mons  Sacer,  where 
the  famous  secession  and  encampment  of  the  plebs,  in  B.C. 
549,  extorted  from  the  patricians  the  concessions  of  tribunes 
who  were  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  people. 

"The  spot  on  which  this  great  deliverance  had  been  achieved  became 
to  the  Romans  what  Runnymede  is  to  Englishmen  :  the  top  of  the  hill 
was  left  for  ever  unenclosed  and  consecrated,  and  an  altar  was  built  on 
it,  and  sacrifices  offered  to  Jupiter,  who  strikes  men  with  terror  and 
again  delivers  them  from  their  fear ;  because  the  commons  had  fled 
thither  in  fear,  and  were  now  returning  in  safety.  So  the  hill  was  known 
for  ever  by  the  name  of  the  Sacred  Hill." — Arnold's  Hist,  of  Rome,  i. 
149. 

Passing  the  Casale  dei  Pazzi,  and  the  tomb  known  as 
Torre  Nomentana,  we  reach,  on  the  right,  the  disinterred 
Basilica  of  S.  Alessandro  (see  Walks  in  Rome,  ii.  32).  A  little 
beyond  this,  after  passing  the  farm  called  Cesarini,  the  road 
divides.  The  turn  to  the  right  passes  under  the  Montes 
Corniculani,  of  which  the  nearest  height  is  occupied  by  S. 
Angelo  in  Cappoccia,  considered  by  Nibby  (quoted  by  Mur- 
ray), without  any  authority,  to  occupy  the  site  of  the  Latin 
city  MeduUia.  It  finally  leads  to  Falombara,  a  tOAvn  of  the 
Sabina,  once  a  fortress  of  the  Savelli,  but  now  belonging  to 


FICULEA.    MENTANA,  179 

the  Borghese,  most  beautifully  situated  at  the  foot  of  Monte 
Gennaro. 

Following  (to  the  left)  the  Via  Noraentana,  where  the  ancient 
pavement  is  now  very  perfect,  we  reach  Casa  Nuova,  and, 
about  1 1  miles  from  Rome  (on  the  left)  the  fine  mediaeval 
tower  called  Torre  LuJ>ara,  built  of  alternate  courses  of 
brick  and  stone.  The  next  hill  is  called  Monte  Gentile,  and 
is  the  supposed  site  of  the  Latin  city  of  Ficulea  or  Ficulnea, 
which  is  frequently  mentioned  both  by  Livy  and  Dionysius 
in  the  early  history  of  Rome.  Gell  speaks  of  the  ground 
near  Torre  Lupara  as  "  strewn  with  tiles  and  pottery — per- 
haps one  of  the  surest  indications  of  an  ancient  city."  It 
has  been  supposed,  from  an  inscription  found  near  the  farm 
Cesarini  referring  to  a  charitable  institution  of  M.  Aurelius 
for  "  Pueri  et  Puellae  Alimentarii  Ficolensium,"  and  from  the 
expression  "  Ficulea  vetus  "  used  by  Livy  (i.  38),  and  "  Fice- 
lias  veteres"  by  Martial  (vi.  27),  that  there  may  have  been 
a  second  town  called  Ficulea,  built  in  later  times  nearer  the 
capital.  Ficulea  was  the  seat  of  an  early  bishopric.  It  is 
said  to  derive  its  name  from  the  wild  figs,  which  are  still 
found  in  abundance  on  its  supposed  site.  In  the  acts  of 
Pope  Caius  and  St.  Lawrence  the  Martyr  it  is  called  "  Civitas 
Figlina  extra  Portam  Salariam."  The  Via  Nomentana  is 
sometimes  spoken  of  as  Via  Ficulea. 

Beyond  Monte  Gentile,  the  road  passes  through  forests 
of  oaks,  a  great  contrast  to  the  bare  Campagna,  till,  when  it 
first  comes  in  sight  of  the  village  of  Mentana,  it  reaches  the 
height  which  was  the  site  of  the  battle,  in  which,  Oct.  1867, 
the  Papal  troops,  assisted  by  the  French,  entirely  defeated 
the  Italians  under  Garibaldi. 

Some  blocks  of  marble  in  the  village  street  are  the  only 


1 80  DA  YS'  NEAR  ROME. 

remains  of  the  ancient  Latin  city  Nomentum,  which  is 
spoken  of  by  Virgil  (vi.  773)  and  Dionysius  (ii.  53)  as  a 
colony  of  Alba.  It  was  one  of  the  thirty  cities  of  the  Latin 
league,*  and  continued  to  flourish  in  the  times  of  the  Em- 
pire, when  Seneca  had  a  country  house-there,t  and  also 
Martial,  who  frequently  speaks  of  it  in  his  poems,  and  con- 
trasts its  peaceful  retirement  with  the  vanities  of  Baise  and 
more  fashionable  summer  villeggiature. 

"  Me  Nomentani  confirmant  otia  ruris, 
Et  casa  jugeribus  non  onerosa  suis, 
Hie  mihi  Baiani  soles,  mollisque  Lucrinus  ; 

Hie  vestrse  mihi  sunt,  Castrice,  divitise. 
Quondam  laudatas  quocunque  libebat  ad  undas 

Currere,  nee  longas  pertimuisse  vias  : 
Nunc  urbi  vicina  juvant,  facilesque  reeessus, 
Et  satis  est,  pigro  si  licet  esse  mihi." 

vi.  43. 

**  Numae  colles,  et  Nomentana  relinques 
Otia?  nee  retinent  rusque  focusque  senem." 

X.  44. 

'*  Cur  ssepe  sicci  parva  rura  Nomenti, 
Laremque  villae  sordidum  petam,  quaeris  ? 
Nee  cogitandi,  Sparse,  nee  quieseendi : 
In  urbe  locus  est  pauperi. " 

xii.  57. 

Martial  praises  its  wine,  which  is  also  extolled  by  Seneca 
and  Pliny. 

"  In  Nomentanis,  Ovidi,  quod  nascitur  agris, 
Accepit  quoties  tempora  longa  merum, 
Exuit  annosae  mores  nomenque  senectse, 
Et  quidquid  voluit,  testa  vocatur  anus. " 

i.  106. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  place  was  called  Civitas  Nomen 
tana,  and  was  the  seat  of  a  bishopric.     Here,  in  a.d.  800, 

*  Niebuhr,  ii.  17.  t  Sen.  Ep.  104. 


MONTE  ROTONDO.  i8i 

Leo  III.  met  Charlemagne,  when  he  came  to  be  crowned  at 
Rome,  and  here  the  great  Consul  Crescentius  was  born. 
Mentana  was  granted  by  Nicholas  III.  (1277-81)  to  his  own 
family,  the  Orsini,  by  whom  it  was  sold  to  the  Peretti,  whose 
arms  still  remain  upon  the  walls  of  its  15th-century  castle. 
The  place  now  belongs  to  the  Borghese. 

The  Via  Nomentana  proceeds  to  join  the  Via  Salara  near 
Correse,  passing — three  miles  beyond  Mentana — Grotta  Ma- 
rozza,  which  is  believed  with  much  reason  to  occupy  the  site 
of  the  Sabine  Eretum,  which,  from  its  position  on  the  fron- 
tier between  the  Latins  and  Sabines,  was  constantly  the  scene 
of  warfare  between  the  two  nations.  It  was  never  a  place 
of  much  importance.  Valerius  Maximus  speaks  of  it  as 
"  Vicus  Sabinae  regionis." 

It  is  two  miles  from  Mentana  to  Monte  Rotondo,  also  the 
site  of  a  battle  between  the  Papal  troops  and  the  Garibaldians. 
Here  is  a  fine  old  castle  built  by  the  Barberini,  on  the  site  of 
a  fortress  of  the  Orsini :  it  is  now  the  property  of  the  Buon- 
compagni.  There  is  a  wide  and  beautiful  view  from  its 
summit.  A  road  of  two  miles  leads  to  the  railway  station 
in  the  valley,  whence  we  may  return  to  Rome  by  the  Via 
Salara. 

One  and  a  half  mile  from  hence,  near  Fonte  di  Papa,  the 
road  crosses  an  insignificant  brook,  which  is  decided  to  coin- 
cide more  than  any  other  with  the  description  which  Livy 
(v.  37)  gives  of  the  fatal  A  Ilia,  a  description  so  accurate  as 
to  show  that  the  place  was  not  necessarily  familiar  to  his 
readers,  viz.  : 

**  iEgread  undecimum  lapidem  occursum  est,  qua  flumen  Allia  Crus- 
tuminis  montibus  praealto  defluens  alveo,  haud  multum  infra  viam  Tibe- 
rino  amni  miscetur." 


1 82  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

Here,  then,  and  in  the  upland  hollows,  which  are  watered 
by  the  same  brook,  the  Romans  underwent  their  famous  de- 
feat by  the  Gauls  under  Brennus  (b.c.  390),  which  led  to  the 
capture  of  the  city,  on  the  i8th  of  July  (a.d.  XV.  Kal.  Sextiles) 
called  thenceforth  Dies  AUiensis,  and  regarded  as  so  ill- 
omened,  that  no  business  was  transacted  upon  it. 

*•  Haec  est  in  fastis  cui  dat  gravis  Allia  nomen." 

Ovid  in  Ibin  .221. 

'•  Quosque  secans  infaustum  interluit  Allia  nomen." 

^n.  vii.  717. 

**  Damnata  diu  Romanis  Allia  fastis." 

Lucan.  vii.  408. 

At  about  nine  miles  from  the  city,  we  pass  (on  the  left)  be- 
neath the  extensive  farm-buildings  called  Marcigliana 
Vecchia,  which  are  usually  believed  to  occupy  the  site  of  the 
city  of  Crustumerium,  though  some  place  it  at  Sette  Bagni, 
the  next  large  farm  on  the  left  of  the  road  to  Rome,  where 
there  arc  traces  of  ancient  buildings  ;  while  others  refer  it  to 
Monte  Rotondo. 

Dionysius  speaks  of  Crustumerium  as  an  Alban  colony 
sent  out  long  before  the  building  of  Rome.  The  city  was 
taken  "^by  Romulus,  again  by  Tarquinius  Priscus,  and  again 
during  the  Roman  Republic,  B.C.  499,  after  which  it  remained 
subject  to  Rome.  In  b.c.  477  occurred  the  "  Crustumerina 
Secessio,"  when  the  army  which  was  being  led  by  the  De- 
cemvirs against  the  Sabines  deserted,  and  retreated  to  Crus- 
tumerium. Virgil  *  mentions  the  Crustumian  pears,  and 
Servius  says  that  they  were  red  only  on  one  side.  It  is  in- 
teresting that  wild  pears  of  this  kind  still  grow  in  abundance 

•  Geors^s,  U.  88. 


CRUSTUMERIUM.  183 

over  all  these  desolate  uplands,  amongst  which  Crustumerium 
must  certainly  have  been  situated.  Two  miles  further  we 
reach,  on  the  right,  Castel  Giubileo,  the  site  of  Fidenae,  de- 
scribed in  chapter  x. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


TIVOLI. 


(This,  1 8  miles  distant,  is  the  most  attractive  of  all  the  places  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  Rome,  and  the  one  excursion  which  no  one 
should  omit,  even  if  they  are  only  at  Rome  for  a  week.  A  carriage  with 
two  horses  ought  not  to  cost  more  than  25  francs  for  the  day.  The  Villa 
Adriana  may  be  visited  on  the  way  :  then  the  Temple  of  the  Sibyl,  the 
Cascades,  the  view  of  the  Cascatelle  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley, 
and  last  of  all  the  Villa  d'Este.  Those  who  are  not  strong  enough  for 
the  whole  should  see  the  view  of  the  Cascatelle  and  the  Villa  d'Este. 
The  round  which  Tivoli  guides  and  donkey-men  take  strangers,  through 
the  woods  and  underneath  the  waterfalls,  is  very  long  and  fatiguing. 
There  are  two  hotels  at  Tivoli,  la  Regina  (in  the  town),  which  is  com- 
fortable, clean,  and  well-furnished,  but  where  it  is  necessary  to  come  to 
a  very  strict  agreement  as  to  prices  on  arriving,  and  La  Sibylla,  far 
humbler,  but  not  uncomfortable,  and  in  the  most  glorious  situation. 
In  the  former,  guests  are  received  en  pension  at  8  fz-ancs  ;  at  the  latter,  at 
6  francs  a  day.  Those  who  stay  long  will  find  endless  points  of  interest 
both  in  the  place  itself  and  the  excursions  which  may  be  made  from  it. 
Visitors  who  are  pressed  for  time  may  omit  the  Villa  Adriana,  but  on 
no  account  the  Villa  d'Este.) 

THE  road  to  Tivoli  follows  the  ancient  Via  Tiburtina  for 
the  greater  part  of  its  course,  and  leads  through  one  of 
the  most  desolate  and  least  interesting  parts  of  the  Campagna. 
Issuing  from  the  Porta  S.  Lorenzo,  we  pass  the  great  basilica 
of  the  same  name,  and  descending  into  the  valley  of  the 
Anio,  cross  the  river  by  a  modern  bridge,  near  the  ancient 
Ponte  MafnmolOf  which  took  its  name  (Pons  Mammaeus) 
from  Mammsea,  mother  of  Alexander  Severus. 


THE  ANIO.  i8s 

The  little  river  Teverone,  or  Anio,  in  which  Silvia,  the 
mother  of  Romulus  and  Remus,  exchanged  her  earthly  life 
for  that  of  a  goddess,  adds  greatly  to  the  charm  of  the  Cam- 
pagna. — It  rises  near  Treba  in  the  Simbrivian  hills,  and 
flows  through  the  gorges  of  Subiaco  and  the  country  of  the 
^quians  till  it  forms  the  glorious  falls  of  Tivoli.  After  this 
stormy  beginning  it  assumes  a  most  peaceful  character,  glid- 
ing gently  between  deep  banks,  and  usually  marked  along 
the  brown  reaches  of  the  burnt-up  Campagna  by  its  fringe  of 
green  willows.  Silius  calls  it  "  sulphureus,"  from  the  sulphu- 
retted hydrogen  which  is  poured  into  it  by  the  springs  of 
Albula. 

"  Sulphureus  gelidus  qua  serpit  leniter  undis 
Ad  genitorem  Anio  labens  sine  murmure  Tybrim»" 

Sil.  Ital.  xii.  539. 

On  its  way  through  the  plain  a  whole  succession  of  his- 
torical brooks  pour  their  waters  into  the  Anio.  Of  these,  the 
most  remarkable,  as  we  ascend  it,  are  (on  the  left)  the  torrent 
Le  Molette  (the  Ulmanus),  the  MagUano,  the  Tutia,  and 
the  Albula ;  and  (on  the  right)  the  Marrana,  and  the  Osa 
which  flows  beneath  the  walls  of  Collatia.  Nibby  says  that 
"  anciently  the  Anio  was  navigable  from  the  Ponte  Lucano 
to  its  mouth."  Strabo  mentions  "  that  the  blocks  of  travertine 
from  the  quarries  near  Tibur,  and  of  Lapis  Gabina  from 
Gabii,  were  brought  to  Rome  by  means  of  it.  But  in  the 
dark  ages  the  channel  was  neglected,  and  the  navigation  in- 
terrupted and  abandoned." 

When  we  reach  the  dismal  farm-buildings,  which  encircle 
the  Osteria  del  Fornaccio,  the  caves  of  Cervara  and  the 
mediaeval  towers  of  Rustica  and  Cervara  are  visible  at 
no  great  distance,  rising  above  the  Campagna  on  the  opposite 


1 86  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

bank  of  the  Anio.  Nothing  more  is  to  be  seen,  except,  here 
and  there,  the  pavement  of  the  ancient  road,  till  we  pass,  on 
the  left,  the  ruins  of  the  mediaeval  Castel  Arcione.  Across 
the  Campagna,  on  the  left,  near  the  Sabine  mountains,  the  pic- 
turesque Httle  hills  called  Montes  Corniculani  may  be  seen, 
their  three  summits  occupied  by  the  villages  of  St.  Angelo, 
Colle  Cesi,  and  Monticelli ;  on  the  right  we  overlook  the 
distant  sites  of  Collatia  and  Gabii,  with  many  other  cities  of 
the  plain,  whose  exact  positions  are  unknown.  After  cross- 
ing the  brook  Tuzia,  the  ancient  Tutia  on  whose  banks 
Hannibal  encamped,*  and  leaving  to  the  left  the  now  drained 
Lago  de'  Tartari,  a  terrible  smell  of  sulphur  announces  the 
neighbourhood,  about  a  mile  distant  on  the  left,  of  the  lakes 
of  the  Solfatara,  the  Aquae  Albulae,  from  which  a  canal,  cut 
in  1549  by  Cardinal  d'Este,  to  take  the  place  of  the  ancient 
Albula,  carries  their  rushing  milk-white  waters  under  the 
road  towards  the  Anio.  Here,  near  "  the  hoary  Albula,"  was 
the  hallowed  grove  of  the  Muses  mentioned  by  Martial : — 

*'  Itur  ad  Herculei  gelidas  qua  Tiburis  arces, 
Canaque  sulphureis  Albula  fumat  aquis, 
Rura,  nemusque  sacrum,  dilectaque  jugera  musis 
Signat  vicina  quartus  ab  urbe  lapis." 

/.  Ep.  13. 

There  are  now  three  lakes.     On  the  largest,  the  Lago  delle 

Isole  Natanti^  are  some   floating  islands  formed  by  matted 

weeds.     The  ruins  near  it,  called  Bagni  della  Regina,  are 

supposed  to  have  been  the  baths  of  Queen  Zenobia  during 

her  semi-captivity  at  Tibur.     The  two  smaller  lakes  have 

the  names  of  Lago  di  S.  Giovanni  and  Lago  delle  Colonelle. 

There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  the  temple  of  Faunus  (^n. 

vii.),  which  is  spoken  of  by  Murray  as  if  it  were  here,  to 

*  Livy,  xx\i.xo. 


PONTE  LUCANO.  187 

have  been  in  this  neighbourhood.  It  was  more  probably  at 
La  Solfatara  in  the  great  Laurentine  wood  sacred  to  Picus 
and  Faunus.  Thither,  and  not  hither,  the  king  of  Lauren- 
turn  would  naturally  go  to  consult  the  oracle.* 

"  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  made  some  carious  experiments  on  the  process 
by  which  the  water  in  these  lakes  continually  adds  to  the  rocks  around, 
by  petrifaction  or  incrustation.  He  says,  that  the  water  taken  from  the 
most  tranquil  part  of  the  lake,  even  after  being  agitated  and  exposed  to 
the  air,  contained  in  solution  more  than  its  own  volume  of  carbonic  acid 
gas,  with  a  very  small  quantity  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  The  tem- 
perature is  80  degrees  of  Fahrenheit.  It  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  afford 
nourishment  to  vegetable  life.  Its  banks  of  Travertin©  are  everywhere 
covered  with  reeds,  lichen,  conferva,  and  various  kinds  of  aquatic  vege- 
tables ;  and  at  the  same  time  that  the  process  of  vegetable  life  is  going 
on,  crystallizations  of  the  calcareous  matter  are  everywhere  formed,  in 
consequence  of  the  escape  of  the  carbonic  acid  of  the  water. 

*'  In  the  line  between  the  bridge  and  the  Solfatara,  the  rocky  crust  was 
broken  in  on  the  left  near  the  stream,  in  the  year  1825,  and  a  portion 
of  the  water  was  lost ;  and  another  stream,  called  Acqua  Acetosa,  falls 
mto  a  hole  on  the  right :  these  instances  show  that  the  crust  is  but  thin 
in  some  places.  It  probably  covers  an  unfathomable  abyss  ;  for  a  stone 
thrown  into  the  lake,  occasions  in  its  descent  so  violent  a  discharge  of 
carbonic  acid  gas,  and  for  so  long  a  time,  as  to  give  the  idea  of  an  im- 
mense depth  of  water.  The  taste  is  acid,  and  the  sulphureous  smell  so 
strong,  that  when  the  wind  assists,  it  has  sometimes  been  perceived  in 
the  higher  parts  of  Rome." — Gell. 

Two  miles  beyond  the  canal  is  the  Po7ite  Lucano,  well 
known  by  engravings  from  the  beautiful  picture  by  G.  Pous- 
sin  in  the  Doria  Palace.  Close  beyond  the  bridge  rises, 
embattled  into  a  tower  by  Pius  II.,  the  massive  round  tomb 
of  the  Plautii,  built  by  M.  Plautius  Silvanus  in  B.C.  i,  and 
long  used  by  his  descendants.  At  Barco,  near  this,  were  the 
principal  quarries  for  the  Travertino  used  in  the  buildings  of 
ancient  Rome. 

•  But  two  inscriptions  hare  been  found  which  show  that  there  was  once  a  temple  of 
Cybele  here,  and  that  the  waters  themselves  were  honoured  as  "Aquae  Alhulae  Sanc- 
tbsimse." 


1 88  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

About  half  a  mile  beyond  the  bridge  a  lane  to  the  left 
leads  to  the  gates  of  the  Villa  Adriana,  which  is  said  once 
to  have  been  from  8  to  lo  miles  in  extent.  It  is  believed 
to  have  been  ruined  during  the  siege  of  Tibur  by  Totila. 
The  chief  interest  of  the  ruins  arises  from  their  vast  extent, 
and  from  the  lovely  carpet  of  the  shrubs  and  flowers,  with 
which  Nature  has  surrounded  them.  In  spring  nothing  can  ex- 
ceed the  beauty  of  the  violets  and  anemonies  here.  *  Successive 
generations  of  antiquaries  have  occupied  themselves  with  the 
nomenclature  of  the  different  masses  of  ruin,  and  they  always 
disagree:  most  travellers  will  consider  such  discussions  of 
little  consequence,  and,  finding  them  exceedingly  fatiguing, 
will  rest  satisfied  in  the  knowledge  that  the  so-called  villa 
was  once  a  most  stupendous  conglomeration  of  unnecessary 
buildings,  and  in  the  joyful  contemplation  of  its  present 
loveliness. 

**I  went  down  to  Adrian's  villa  with  exalted  ideas  of  its  extent, 
variety,  and  magnificence.  On  approaching  it,  I  saw  ruins  overgrown 
with  trees  and  bushes ;  I  saw  mixt-reticular  walls  stretching  along  the 
side  of  a  hill,  in  all  the  confusion  of  a  demolished  town ;  but  I  saw  no 
grandeur  of  elevation,  no  correspondence  in  the  parts.  I  went  on.  The 
extent  and  its  variety  opened  before  me — baths,  academies,  porticos,  a 
library,  a  palestra,  a  hippodrome,  a  menagerie,  a  naiimachia,  an  aqueduct, 
theatres  both  Greek  and  Latin,  temples  for  different  rites,  and  every 
appurtenance  suitable  to  an  imperial  seat.  But  its  magnificence  is  gone  : 
it  is  removed  to  the  Vatican,  it  is  scattered  over  Italy,  it  may  be  traced 
in  France.  "  Anywhere  but  at  Tivoli  you  may  look  for  the  statues  and 
caryatides,  the  columns,  the  oriental  marbles,  and  the  mosaics,  with 
which  the  villa  was  once  adorned,  or  supported,  or  wainscoted,  or 
floored. " — Forsyth. 

"  The  drive  was  less  beautiful  than  most  of  those  which  lie  round 
Rome.  Thus  two  hours  and  a  half  went  by,  dully ;  and  I  was  not 
sorry  when,  turning  aside  from  the  castellated  tomb  of  the  Plautii  family, 

*  Since  this  account  was  written  (1873)  the  destroying  hand  of  Signor  Rosa  has 
been  here,  the  flowers  are  all  rooted  up,  the  ruins  stripped  of  their  creepers,  and  of 
the  fringes  of  lovely  shrubs  which  gave  them  all  their  charm  ;  and,  for  the  present, 
the  Villa  Adriana — a  mass  of  bare  walls  in  a  naked  country — is  little  worth  visiting— 


VILLA  ADRIANA.  189 

we  passed  down  a  shady  lane,  and  stoppe<l  at  the  gate  of  Hadrian's 
Villa.  Alighting  here,  we  passed  into  that  wide  and  wondrous 
wilderness  of  ruin,  through  avenues  dark  with  C)q)ress,  and  steep  banks 
purple  with  violets.  The  air  was  heavy  with  perfume.  The  glades 
were  carpeted  with  daisies,  wild  periwinkle,  and  white  and  yellow 
crocus-blooms.  We  stepped  aside  into  a  grassy  ^rena  which  was  once 
the  Greek  theatre,  and  sate  upon  a  fallen  cornice.  There  was  the  narrow 
shelf  of  stage  on  which  the  agonies  of  CEdipus  and  Prometheus  were 
once  rehearsed ;  there  was  the  tiny  altar  which  stood  between  the 
audience  and  the  actors,  and  consecrated  the  play ;  there,  row  above 
row,  were  the  seats  of  the  spectators.  Now,  the  very  stage  was  a  mere 
thicket  of  brambles  ;  and  a  little  thrush  lighted  on  the  altar,  while  we 
were  sitting  by,  and  filled  all  the  silent  space  with  song. 

"  Passing  hence,  we  came  next  upon  open  fields,  partly  cultivated, 
and  partly  cumbered  with  shapeless  mounds  of  fallen  masonry.  Here, 
in  the  shadow  of  a  gigantic  stone  pine,  we  found  a  sheet  of  mosaic  pave- 
ment, glowing  with  all  its  marbles  in  the  sun  ;  and  close  by,  half  buried 
in  deep  grass,  a  shattered  column  of  the  richest  porphyry.  Then  came 
an  olive  plantation ;  another  theatre ;  the  fragments  of  a  temple  ;  and 
a  long  line  of  vaulted  cells,  some  of  which  contained  the  remains  of 
baths  and  conduits,  and  were  tapestried  within  with  masses  of  the  deli- 
cate maiden-hair  fern.  Separated  from  these  by  a  wide  space  of  grass, 
amid  which  a  herd  of  goats  waded  and  fed  at  their  pleasure,  rose  a  pile 
of  reticulated  wall,  with  part  of  a  vast  hall  yet  standing,  upon  the  vaulted 
roof  of  which,  sharp  and  perfect,  as  if  moulded  yesterday,  were  en- 
crusted delicate  bas-reliefs  of  white  stucco,  representing  groups  of 
Cupids,  musical  instruments,  and  figures  reclining  at  table.  Near  this 
spot,  on  a  rising  ground  formed  all  of  ruins,  overgrown  with  grass  and 
underwood,  we  sate  down  to  rest,  and  contemplate  the  view. 

"  A  deep  romantic  valley  opened  before  us,  closed  in  on  either  side 
by  hanging  woods  of  olive  and  ilex,  with  here  and  there  a  group  of 
dusky  junipers,  or  a  solitary  pine,  rising  like  a  dark  green  parasol  above 
all  its  neighbours.  Interspersed  among  these,  and  scattered  about  the 
foreground,  were  mountainous  heaps  of  buttressed  wall,  arch,  vault,  and 
gallery,  all  more  or  less  shattered  out  of  form,  or  green  with  ivy.  At 
the  bottom  of  the  valley,  forming,  as  it  were,  the  extreme  boundary  of 
the  middle  distance,  rose  two  steep  volcanic  hills,  each  crowned  with  a 
little  white  town,  that  seemed  to  wink  and  glitter  in  the  sun  ;  while 
beyond  these  again,  undulating,  melancholy,  stretching  mysteriously 
away  for  miles  and  miles  in  the  blue  distance,  lay  the  wastes  of  the 
Campagria." — Barbara's  History. 

"  Autour  de  moi,  \  travers  les  arcades  des  ruines,  s'ouvraient  des 


190  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

points  de  vue  sur  la  campagne  romaine  :  des  buissons  de  sureau  rem- 
plissaient  les  salles  desertes,  oti  venaient  se  refugier  quelques  merles 
solitaires;  les  fragments  de  ma9onnerie  etaient  tapisses  de  feuilles  de 
scolopendre,  dont  la  verdure  satinee  se  dessinait  comme  un  travail  en 
mosaique  sur  la  blancheur  des  marbres.  Ck  et  la  de  hauts  cypres 
remplagaient  les  colonnes  tombees  dans  ces  palais  de  la  mort.  L'acanthe 
sauvage  rampait  a  leurs  pieds  sur  des  debris,  comme  si  la  nature  s'etait 
plu  a  reproduire  sur  ces  chefs  d'oeuvre  inutiles  de  I'architecture  I'omement 
de  leur  beaute  passee  ;  les  salles  diverses,  et  les  sommites  des  ruines, 
ressemblaient  a  des  corbeilles  et  a  des  bouquets  de  verdure  ;  le  vent  en 
agitait  les  guirlandes  humides,  et  les  plantes  s'inclinaient  sous  la  pluie 
du  ciel." — Chateaubriand.* 

The  villa  formed  part  of  a  large  estate  purchased  by  Pius 
VI.  It  is  now  the  property  of  his  representative,  Duke 
Braschi. 

On  Monte  Affliano,  which  rises  behind  the  Villa  Adriana, 
to  the  south  of  Tivoli,  most  authorities  place  the  site  of  the 
Latin  city  ^sula.  The  mountain  of  Tivoli  is  divided  into 
three  positions  :  Ripoli,  towards  the  town  ;  Spaccato,  in  the 
centre ;  and  Monte  Affliano,  at  the  southern  extremity. 
Porphyrion  has  accurately  described  the  position  of  ^sula  as 
on  this  southern  extremity  of  the  centre  of  Tibur. 

*'  Udum  Tibur  propter  aquarum  copiam.  ,  .  ^sula,  nomen  urbis, 
alterius  in  latere  montis  constitutae. " 

There  are  remains  of  a  city  having  stood  here. 

*'  ^sula  declive  contempleris  arvum." 

Horace,  iii.  Ode  29. 

It  was  probably  deserted  on  account  of  its  inconvenient 
situation,  and  the  temple  of  Bona  Dea  or  Ops  was  its  repre- 
sentative, in  later  times. t 

A  winding  road,  constructed  by  the  Braschi,  winds  up  the 

*  The  powerful  description  of  Chateaubriand  cannot  be  realized  now,  but  is  inserted, 
in  the  hope  that  when  the  reign  of  Signor  Rosa  is  over,  Nature  will  be  permitted  to 
restore  the  ruins  of  the  Villa  Adriana  to  their  former  beauty. 

t  See  Cell's  "Topography  of  Rome  and  its  Vicinity." 


ASCENT  TO  TIVOLI. 


191 


hill  to  Tivoli,  through  magnificent  olive-groves,  the  silvery 
trunks  of  the  old  trees  caverned,  loop-holed,  and  twisted  in 
every  possible  contortion. 

**  It  is  well  to  have  felt  and  seen  the  olive-tree  j  to  have  loved  it  fof 
Christ's  sake,  partly  also  for  the  helmed  Wisdom's  sake  which  was  to 
the  heathen  in  some  sort  as  that  nobler  Wisdom  which  stood  at  God's 
right  hand,  when  he  founded  the  earth  and  established  the  heavens  :  to 
have  loved  it,  even  to  the  hoary  dimness  of  its  delicate  foliage,  subdued 
and  faint  of  hue,  as  if  the  ashes  of  the  Gethsemane  agony  had  been  cast 
upon  it  for  ever  ;  and  to  have  traced,  line  by  line,  the  gnarled  writhing 
of  its  intricate  branches,  and  the  pointed  petals  of  its  light  and  narrow 
leaves,  inlaid  on  the  blue  field  of  the  sky,  and  the  small  rosy- white  stars 
of  its  spring  blossoming,  and  the  beads  of  sable  fruit  scattered  by  autumn 
along  its  topmost  boughs — the  right,  in  Israel,  of  the  stranger,  the  father- 
less, and  the  widow, — and,  more  than  all,  the  softness  of  the  mantle, 
silver  grey,  and  tender  like  the  down  on  a  bird's  breast,  with  which, 
far  away,  it  veils  the  undulation  of  the  mountains. " — Ruskin^  Stones  oj 
Venice,  iii.  176, 

As  we  drive  slowly  up  the  ascent  it  may  be  pleasant  to 
consider  the  history  of  Tibur,  which  claims  to  go  back  much 
further  than  that  of  Rome.  Dionysius  says  that  it  was  a 
city  of  the  Siculi,  and  called  Siculetum  or  Sicilis,  and  that 
the  original  inhabitants  were  expelled  by  Tiburtus,  Corax,  and 
Catillus,  the  three  grandsons  of  Amphiaraus,  the  king  and 
prophet  of  Thebes,  who  flourished  a  century  before  the 
Trojan  war.  Tibur  was  named  after  the  eldest  of  the 
brothers. 

"  Turn  gemini  fratres  Tiburtia  moenia  linquunt, 
Fratris  Tiburti  dictam  cognomine  gentem, 
Catillusque,  acerque  Coras,  Argiva  juventus." 

^n.  vii.  670. 
"  Jam  moenia  Tiburis  udi 
Stabant,  Aigolicae  quod  posuere  manus. " 

Ovid.  Fast.  iv.  71. 
"  Nullam,  Vare,  sacra  vite  prius  severis  arborem 
Circa  mite  solum  Tiburis,  et  moenia  Catili." 

Horace,  Od.  1.  xviii.  l. 


192  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

**  Hie  tua  Tiburtes  Faunos  chelys  et  juvat  ipsum 
Alciden  dictumque  lyra  majore  Catillum." 

Statins,  Silv.  i.  3. 

The  inhabitants  of  Tibiir  frequently  incurred  the  anger  of 
Rome  by  assistance  they  gave  to  the  Gauls  upon  their  in- 
roads into  Latium,  and  they  were  completely  subdued  by 
Camillus  in  B.C.  335.  Ovid  narrates  how  when  they  were 
requested  to  send  back  the  Roman  pipers,  "  tibicines,"  who 
had  seceded  to  Tibur  from  offence  which  they  had  taken 
at  an  edict  of  the  censors,  they  made  them  drunk,  and  took 
them  thus  in  carts  to  Rome. 

"  Exilio  mutant  urbem,  Tiburque  recedunt ! 
— Exilium  quodam  tempore  Tibur  erat !  — 
Quaeritur  in  scena  cava  tibia,  quaeritur  aris, 
Ducit  supremos  nsenia  nulla  choros. 


AUiciunt  somnos  tempus,  motusque,  merumque, 

Potaque  se  Tibur  turba  redire  putat. 
Jamque  per  Esquilias  Romanam  intraverat  urbem  ; 

Et  mane  in  medio  plaustra  fuere  foro." 

Fasti,  vi.  665. 

The  second    line  of  this  passage   expresses    the  fact  that 
Tibur  was  an  asylum  for  Roman  fugitives,  a  result  of  its 
never  having  been  admitted  to  the  Roman  franchise. 
In  his  Pontic  Epistles,  also,  Ovid  says  : — 

"  Quid  referam  veteres  Romanse  gentis,  apud  quos 
Exilium  tellus  ultima  Tibur  erat  ?  " 

Pont.  I.  El.  3. 

Brutus  and  Cassius  are  said  to  have  fled  thither  after  the 
murder  of  Caesar.  Under  the  earlier  emperors,  Tibur  was 
the  favourite  retreat  of  the  wealthy  Romans, — the  Richmond 
of  Rome — and,  as  such,  it  was  celebrated  by  the  poets.  It 
was  also  the  scene  of  the  nominal  imprisonment  of  Zenobia, 


BEAUTY  OF  TIVOLL  193 

the  brave  and  accomplished  Queen  of  Palmyra,  who  lived 
here  like  a  Roman  matron,  after  having  appeared  in  the 
triumph  of  Aurelian.  She  was  presented  with  a  beautiful 
villa  by  the  Emperor.  "  Here  the  Syrian  queen  insensibly 
sunk  into  a  Roman  matron,  her  daughters  married  into  noble 
families,  and  her  race  was  not  yet  extinct  in  the  fifth  century."  * 
In  an  earlier  age,  Syphax,  king  of  Numidia,  died  here  B.C. 
201,  having  been  brought  from  Africa  to  adorn  the  triumph  of 
Scipio.  The  town  was  surrendered  by  the  Isaurian  garrisons, 
which  Belisarius  had  placed  there,  to  the  Goths  under 
Totila,  who  both  burnt  and  rebuilt  it.  In  the  eighth  century 
the  name  was  changed  to  Tivoli.  In  the  wars  of  the 
Guelphs  and  Ghibellines  it  bore  a  prominent  part  and  was 
generally  on  the  imperial  side. 

The  climate  of  Tivoli  was  esteemed  remarkably  healthy, 
and  was  considered  to  have  the  property  of  blanching  ivory. 

**  Quale  micat,  semperque  novum  est,  quod  Tiburis  aura 
Pascit,  ebur." 

Sil.  Hal.  xii.  229. 

"  I^ilia  tu  vincis,  nee  adhuc  delapsa  ligustra, 
Et  Tiburtino  monte  quod  albet  ebur. " 

Martial,  viii.  28. 

But  since  the  existence  of  malaria,  modem  poetry  has  told  a 

difterent  tale : — 

"Tivoli  di  mal  conforto, 
O  piove,  o  tira  vento,  o  suona  a  morte." 

As  we  ascend  the  hill,  its  wonderful  beauty  becomes  more 
striking  at  every  turn. 

"The  hill  of  Tivoli  is  all  over  picture.  The  town,  the  villas,  the 
ruins,  the  rocks,  the  cascades,  in  the  foreground  ;  the  Sabine  hills,  the 
three  Monticelli,  Soracte,  Frascati,  the  Campagna,  and  Rome  in  the 

•  Gibbon,  ch.  xi. 
VOL.  I.  13 


194  ^A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

distance ;  these  forai  a  succession  of  landscapes  superior,  in  the  delight 
produced,  to  the  richest  cabinet  of  Claude's.  Tivoli  cannot  be  de- 
scribed :  no  true  portrait  of  it  exists  :  all  views  alter  and  embellish  it : 
they  are  poetical  translations  of  the  matchless  original.  Indeed,  when 
you  come  to  detail  the  hill,  some  defect  of  harmony  will  ever  be  found  in 
the  foreground  or  distance,  something  in  the  swell  or  channelling  of  its 
sides,  something  in  the  growth  or  the  grouping  of  its  trees,  which  paint- 
ers, referring  every  object  to  its  effect  on  canvas,  will  often  condemn 
as  bad  Nature.  In  fact,  the  beauties  of  the  landscape  are  all  accidental. 
Nature,  intent  on  more  important  ends,  does  nothing  exclusively  to 
please  the  eye.  No  stream  flows  exactly  as  the  artist  would  wish  it :  he 
wants  mountains  where  he  finds  only  hills :  he  wants  hills  where  he 
finds  a  plain.  Nature  gives  him  but  scattered  elements,  the  composition 
is  his  own." — Forsyth, 

Close  to  the  gate  of  the  town,  on  the  right,  is  the 
picturesque  five-towered  Castle,  built  by  Pius  II.  (1458-64). 

A  street,  full  of  mediaeval  fragments,  leads  to  the  Regina 
and  on  to  the  Sibylla,  which  all  artists  will  prefer,  and  which 
has  never  merited  the  description  of  George  Sand  : — 

"L'affreuse  auberge  de  la  Sibylle,  un  vrai  coupe-gorge  de  I'Opera- 
Comique." 

It  Stands  on  the  very  edge  of  the  precipice  : — 

"The  green  steep  whence  Anio  leaps 
In  floods  of  snow-white  foam. " 

Macaiday. 

This  is  an  almost  isolated  quarter  of  the  town,  occupying 
a  distinct  point  of  rock,  called  Castro  Vetere,  which  is 
supposed  to  have  been  the  arx  or  citadel  of  ancient  Tibur 
— the  Sicelion  of  Dionysius.  Here,  on  the  verge  of  the 
abyss,  with  coloured  cloths  hanging  out  over  its  parapet- 
wall,  as  we  have  so  often  seen  it  in  pictures,  stands  the 
beautiful — the  most  beautiful — little  building,  which  has 
been  known  for  ages  as  the  Temple  of  the  Sibyl.  It  was 
once  encircled  by  18  Corinthian  columns,  and  of  these  10 


TEMPLES  OF  TIVOLI,  195 

Still  remain.     In  its  delicate  form  and  its  rich  orange  colour, 

standing  out  against  the  opposite  heights  of  Monte  Peschia- 

vatore,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  anything  more  picturesque, 

and  the   situation   is   sublime,  perched  on  the  very  edge 

of  the  cliff,  overhung  with  masses   of  clematis   and   ivy, 

through  which  portions  of  the  ruined  arch  of  a  bridge  are 

just  visible,  while  below  the  river  foams  and  roars.     Close 

behind  the  circular  temple  is  another  little  oblong  temple 

of  travertine,  with  Ionic  columns,  now  turned  into  the  Church 

of  S.  Giorgio.     Those  who  contend  that  the  circular  temple 

was  dedicated  to  Vesta,  or  to  Hercules  Saxonus,  call  this  the 

Temple  of  the  Sibyl :  others  *  say  it  is  the  Temple  of  Tibur- 

tus,  the  founder  of  the  city ;  others,  that  it  was  built  in  honour 

of  Drusilla,  sister  of  Caligula.     We  know  from  Varro  that  the 

loth  and  last  of  the  Sibyls,  whose  name  was  Albunea,  was 

worshipped  at  Tivoli,  and  her  temple  seems  to  be  coupled  by 

the  poets  with  the  shrine  of  Tiburtus  above  the  Anio. 

**  Illis  ipse  antris  Anienus  fonte  relicto, 
Nocte  sub  arcana  glaucos  exutus  amictus, 
Hue  illuc  fragili  prostemit  pectora  musco  : 
Aut  ingens  in  stagna  cadit,  vitreasque  natatu 
Plaudit  aquas  :  ilia  recubat  Tibumus  in  umbra, 
Illic  sulphureos  cupit  Albula  mergere  crines." 

Statins,  Silv.  i.  3. 

Close  to  the  temples  a  gate  will  admit  visitors  into  the 
beautiful  walks  begun  by  General  Miollis,  and  finished  under 
the  Papal  government.  Those  who  are  not  equal  to  a  long 
round,  should  not  enter  upon  these,  and  in  taking  a  local 
guide  it  should  be  recollected  that  there  is  scarcely  the 
slightest  ground  for  anything  they  say,  and  that  the  names 
they  give  to  villas  and  temples  are  generally  the  merest  con- 
jecture. 

•  Nibby.    Diutorni,  iii.  205. 


196  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  walks,  however,  are  charming,  and  lead  by  a  gradual 
descent  to  the  caves  called  the  Grottoes  of  Neptime  and  the 
Sirens,  into  the  chasm  beneath  which  the  Anio  fell  magnifi- 
cently till  1826,*  when  an  inundation  which  carried  away  a 
church  and  twenty-six  houses  led  the  Papal  government  to 
divert  the  course  of  the  river  in  order  to  prevent  the  temples 
from  being  carried  away  also,  and  to  open  the  new  artificial 
cascade,  320  feet  high,  in  1834.  The  Anio  at  Tivoli,  as  the 
Velino  at  Terni,  has  extraordinary  petrifying  properties, 
and  the  mass  of  stalactites  and  petrified  vegetation  hanging 
everywhere  from  the  rocks  adds  greatly  to  their  wild 
j)icturesqueness. 

"  Puisque  vous  me  dites  que  vous  avez  sous  les  yeux  tous  les  guides 
et  itineraires  de  I'ltalie  pour  suivre  mon  humble  peregrination,  je  dois 
vous  prevenir  que,  dans  aucun  vous  ne  trouverez  une  description  exacte 
de  ces  grottes,  par  la  raison  que  les  eboulements,  les  tremblements  de 
terre,  et  les  travaux  indispensables  a  la  securite  de  la  ville,  menacee  de 
s'ecrouler  aussi,  ou  d'etre  emportee  par  I'Anio,  ont  souvent  change  leur 
aspect.  Je  vais  tacher  de  vous  donner  succinctement  une  idee  exacte  ; 
car,  en  depit  des  nouveaux  itineraires  qui  pretendent  que  ces  lieux  ont 
perdu  leur  principal  interet,  ils  sont  encore  une  des  plus  ravissantes  mer- 
veilles  de  la  terre. 

"  Je  vous  ai  parle  d'un  puits  de  verdure  ;  c'est  ce  bocage,  d'environ 
un  mille  de  tour  a  son  sommet,  que  Ton  a  arrange  dans  I'entonnoir  d'un 
ancien  cratere.  L'abime  est  done  tapisse  de  plantations  vigoureuses,  bien 
libres  et  bien  sauvrages,  descendant  sur  les  flancs  de  montagne  presque  a 
pic,  au  moyen  des  zig-zags  d'un  sentier  doux  aux  pieds,  tout  borde 
d'herbes  et  de  fleurs  rustiques,  soutenu  par  les  terrasses  naturelles  du  roc 
pittoresque,  et  se  degageant  a  chaque  instant  des  bosquets  qui  I'ombragent 
pour  vous  laisser  regarder  le  torrent  sous  vos  pieds,  le  rocher  perpendicu- 
laire  a  votre  droite,  et  le  joli  temple  de  la  Sibylle  au-dessus  de  votre 
tete.  C'est  a  la  fois  d'une  grace  et  d'une  majeste,  d'une  aprete  et  d'une 
fraicheur  qui  resument  bien  les  caracteres  de  la  nature  italienne.  •  II  me 
semble  qu'il  n'y  a  ici  rien  d'austere  et  de  terrible  qui  ne  soit  tout  k  coup 
tempere  on  dissimule  par  des  voluptes  souriantes. 

*  This  fall,  though  natural,  was  itself  the  result  of  an  inundation  in  A.D.  105,  which 
is  recorded  by  Pliny  the  Younger.     (Ep.  viii.  17.) 


FALLS  OF  THE  ANIO.  197 

.  **  Quand  on  a  descendu  environ  les  deux  tiers  du  sentier,  il  vous  con- 
duit 4  I'entree  d'une  grotte  laterale  completement  inapercjue  jusque-la. 
Cette  grotte  est  un  couloir,  une  galerie  naturelle  que  le  torrent  a  rencon- 
tree  dans  la  roche,  et  qui  semble  avoir  ete  une  des  bouches  du  cratere 
dont  le  puits  de  verdure  tout  entier  aurait  ete  le  foyer  principal. 

**  De  quelles  scenes  effroyables,  de  quelles  devorantes  ejaculations,  de 
quels  craquements,  de  quels  rugissements,  de  quels  bouillonnements 
affreux  cette  ravissante  cavite  de  Tivoli  a  du  etre  le  theatre  !  II  me 
semblait  qu'elle  devait  son  charme  actuel  ^  la  pensee,  j'allais  presque 
dire  au  souvenir  evoque  en  moi,  des  tenebreuses  horreurs  de  sa  formation 
premiere.  C'est  la  une  mine  du  passe  autrement  imposante  que  les 
debris  des  temples  et  des  aqueducs  ;  mais  les  ruines  de  la  nature  ont 
encore  sur  celles  de  nos  oeuvres  cette  superiorite  que  le  temps  batit  sflr 
elles,  comme  des  monuments  nouveaux,  les  merveilles  de  la  vegetation, 
les  frais  edifices  de  la  forme  et  de  la  couleur,  les  veritables  temples  de 
la  vie. 

'*  Par  cette  caveme,  un  bras  d'Anio  se  precipite  et  roule,  avec  un 
bruit  magnifique,  sur  des  lames  de  rocher  qu'il  s'est  charge  d'aplanir  et 
de  creuser  ^  son  usage.  A  deux  cents  pieds  plus  haut,  il  traverse  tran- 
quillement  la  ville  et  met  en  mouvement  plusieurs  usines  ;  mais,  tout  au 
beau  milieu  desmaisons  et  des  jardins,  il  rencontre  cette  coulee  vol canique, 
s'y  engouffre,  et  vient  se  briser  au  bas  du  grand  rocher,  sur  les  debris 
de  son  couronnement  detache,  qui  gisent  la  dans  un  desordre  grandiose. " 
— George  Sand,  La  Daniella. 

"  Above  the  cold  deep  dell  into  which  you  dive  to  see  the  mysteries 
of  Anio's  urn,  raised  high  on  a  pedestal  of  sharply-cut  rock  and  seated 
as  on  a  throne  of  velvet  verdure,  towers,  like  a  pinnacle  projected  on 
the  deep  blue  sky,  the  graceful  temple  of  the  Sibyl,  that  most  exquisite 
specimen  of  art  crowning  nature,  in  perfect  harmony  of  beauties." — 
Cardinal  fViseman. 

The  small  ruins  of  two  Roman  bridges  were  rendered 
visible  when  the  course  of  the  river  was  changed.  Ascend- 
ing again  the  upper  road  beyond  the  falls,  guides,  on  no 
authority  whatever,  point  out  some  ruins  as  those  of  the  Villa 
of  Vopiscus,  a  poet  of  the  time  of  Domitian.  That  he  had  a 
property  at  Tibur,  we  know  from  the  verses  of  Statius,  who 
has  left  a  pleasant  account  of  the  villa  of  his  friend :  his 
grounds  appear  to  have  extended  on  both  sides  of  the  river. 


198  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

•* Ceinere  facundi  Tibur  glaciale  Vopisci 
Si  quis  et  inserto  geminos  Aniene  penates, 
Aut  potuit  socise  commercia  noscere  ripse. 

Ingenium  quam  mite  solo  !  qu3e  forma  beatis 
Arte  manus  concessa  locis  !  Non  largius  usquam 
Indulsit  natura  sibi.     Nemora  alta  citatis 
Incubuere  vadis ;  fallax  responsat  imago 
Frondibus,  et  longes  eadem  fugit  unda  per  umbras. 
Ipse  Anien — miranda  fides — infraque  superque 
Saxeus,  hie  tumidam  rabiem  spumosaque  ponit 
Murmura,  ceu  placidi  veritus  turbare  Vopisci 
Pieriosque  dies  et  habentes  carmina  somnos. 
Litus  utrumque  domi,  nee  te  mitissimus  amnis 
Dividit.     Alternas  servant  prgetoria  ripas 
Non  externa  sibi,  fluviumve  obstare  queruntur. 

Hie  setema  quies,  nullis  hie  jura  procellis, 
,  Nusquam  fervor  aquis.     Datur  hie  transmittere  visus 

Et  voces,  et  psene  manus." 

Silv.  I.  3. 

We  now  turn  round  the  base  of  Monte  Catillo  to  that  of 
Monte  Peschiavatore  and  the  point  opposite  the  Cascatelle, 
which  is  known  to  have  borne  the  name  of  QuintiHolo  in  the 
loth  century,  and  where  a  little  church  is  still  called  La 
Madonna  di  Quintiliola.  It  is  possible  this  name  may  be 
derived  from  Quintilius  Varus,  and  that  his  villa,  mentioned 
by  Horace  (ode  i.  18)  as  near  the  town,  may  have  been  in 
this  neighbourhood.  Remains  of  a  sumptuous  villa  with 
inlaid  pavements  and  statues — especially  two  Fauns  now  in 
the  Vatican — ^have  certainly  been  found  here. 

Nothing  can  exceed  the  loveliness  of  the  views  from  tlie 
road  which  leads  from  Tivoli  by  the  chapel  of  S.  Antonia 
to  the  Madonna  di  QuintiHolo.  On  the  opposite  height 
rises  the  town  with  its  temples,  its  old  houses  and  churches, 
clinging  to  the  edge  of  the  cliffs,  which  are  overhung  with 


THE  CASCATELLE. 


199 


such  a  wealth  of  luxuriant  vegetation  as  is  almost  indescrib- 
able; and  beyond,  beneath  the  huge  piles  of  building  known 


Tivoli. 

as  the  Villa  of  Maecenas,  the  thousand  noisy  cataracts  of  the 
Cascatelle  leap  forth  beneath  the  old  masonry,  and  sparkle 
and  dance  and  foam  through  the  green — and  all  this  is  only 
the  foreground  to  vast  distances  of  dreamy  campagna,  seen 
through  the  gnarled  hoary  stems  of  grand  old  olive-trees — 
rainbow-hued  with  every  delicate  tint  of  emerald  and 
amethyst,  and  melting  into  sapphire,  where  the  solitary  dome 
of  S.  Peter's  rises,  invincible  by  distance,  over  the  level  line 
of  the  horizon. 

And  the  beauty  is  not  confined  to  the  views  alone.  Each 
turn  of  the  winding  road  is  a  picture;  deep  ravines  of  solemn 
dark-green  olives  which  waken  into  silver  light  as  the  wind 
shakes  their  leaves, — old  convents  and  chapels  buried  in 


200  JDA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

shady  nooks  on  the  mountain-side, — thickets  of  laurestinus, 
roses,  genista,  and  jessamine, — banks  of  Hlies  and  hyacinths, 
anemonies  and  violets, — grand  masses  of  grey  rock,  up 
which  white-bearded  goats  are  scrambling  to  nibble  the 
myrtle  and  rosemary,  and  knocking  down  showers  of  the  red 
tufa  on  their  way ; — and  a  road,  with  stone  seats  and  para- 
pets, twisting  along  the  edge  of  the  hill  through  a  constant 
diorama  of  loveliness,  and  peopled  by  groups  of  peasants  in 
their  gay  dresses  returning  from  their  work,  singing  in  parts 
wild  canzonetti  which  echo  amid  the  silent  hills,  or  by 
women  washing  at  the  wayside  fountains,  or  returning  with 
brazen  conche,  poised  upon  their  heads,  like  stately  statues 
of  water-goddesses  wakened  into  life. 

"The  pencil  only  can  describe  Tivoli ;  and  though  unlike  other 
saenes,  the  beauty  of  which  is  generally  exaggerated  in  pictures,  no  re- 
presentation has  done  justice  to  it,  it  is  yet  impossible  that  some  part 
of  its  peculiar  charms  should  not  be  transferred  upon  the  canvas.  It 
almost  seems  as  if  Nature  herself  had  turned  painter  when  she  formed 
this  beautiful  and  perfect  composition." — Eaton's  Rotne, 

Deep  below  Quintiliolo,  reached  by  a  winding  path  through 
grand  old  olive-woods,  is  the  Foftte  delV  Acquoria — "the 
bridge  of  the  golden  water,"  so  called  from  a  beautiful 
spring  which  rises  near  it.  It  is  a  fine  single  arch  of  traver- 
tine, crossed  by  the  Via  Tiburtina. 

Passengers  now  cross  the  Anio  by  a  wooden  bridge,  and 
ascend  the  Clivus  Tiburtinus  on  the  other  side.  Much  of 
the  ancient  pavement  remains.  On  the  right  of  the  road  is 
the  curious  circular-domed  building,  somewhat  resembling 
the  temple  of  Minerva-Medica  at  Rome,  and  called  by  local 
antiquaries  //  Tempio  delta  Tosse^  or  "The  Temple  of 
Cough."  The  fact  being,  that  it  was  probably  the  sepulchre 
of  the  Turcia  family,  one  of  the  members  of  which,  Lucius 


VILLA  OF  MAECENAS.  aot 

Arterius  Turcius,  is  shown  by  an  inscription  to  have  repaired 
the  neighbouring  road  in  the  time  of  Constans.  In  the  in- 
terior are  some  remains  of  13th-century  frescoes,  which 
indicate  that  this  was  then  used  as  a  Christian  church. 

The  Via  Constantina,  which  leads  into  the  town  from  the 
Ponte  Lucano,  falls  into  the  Via  Tiburtina  near  this. 

On  the  brow  of  the  hill,  we  may  now  visit  the  immense 
ruins  called  The  Villa  of  Mcecenas,  though  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  to  suppose  that  it  was  his  villa,  or  even  that  he 
had  a  villa  at  Tibur  at  all. 

**It  is  an  immense  quadrilateral  edifice,  637^  feet  long,  and  450 
broad,  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  sumptuous  porticoes.  The  fourth 
•side,  or  that  which  looks  towards  Rome,  which  is  one  of  the  long  sides, 
'had  a  theatre  in  the  middle  of  it,  with  a  hall  or  saloon  on  each  side. 
The  porticoes  are  arched,  and  adorned  on  the  side  towards  the  area  with 
half-columns  of  the  Doric  order.  Behind  is  a  series  of  chambers.  An 
oblong  tumulus  now  marks  the  site  of  the  house,  or,  according  to 
Nibby,  who  regards  it  as  the  temple  of  Hercules,  of  the  Cella.  The 
pillars  were  of  travertine,  and  of  a  beautiful  Ionic  order.  One  of  them 
existed  on  the  ruins  as  late  as  1812.  This  immense  building  intercepted 
the  ancient  road,  for  which,  as  appears  from  an  inscription  preserved  in 
the  Vatican,  a  vault  or  tunnel  was  constructed,  part  of  which  is  still 
extant.  Hence  it  gave  name  to  the  Porta  Scura  or  Obscura^  mentioned 
in  the  Bull  of  Benedict,  which  it  continued  to  bear  at  least  as  late  as 
the  15th  century." — Smith'' s  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Roman  Geography. 

These  ruins  are  the  only  remains  in  Tivoli  which  at  all  cor- 
respond with  the  allusions  in  the  poets  to  the  famous 
Heracleum,  or  Temple  of  Hercules,  which  was  of  such  a 
size  as  to  be  quoted,  with  the  waterfall,  by  Strabo  as  charac- 
teristics of  Tivoli,  just  as  the  great  temple  of  Fortune  was 
the  distinguishing  feature  of  Praeneste.  It  contained  a 
library,  and  had  an  oracle,  which  answered  by  sortes  like 
that  of  Praeneste.  Augustus,  when  at  Tibur,  frequently  ad- 
ministered justice  in  the  porticoes  of  the  temple  of  Hercules. 


202  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

To  trace  all  the  poetical  allusions  to  it  would  be  endless : 
here  are  a  few  of  them. 

**  Curve  te  in  Herculeum  deportant  esseda  Tibur.* 

Fropertius,  II.  32. 
"Tibur  in  Herculeum  migravit  nigra  Lycoris." 

Martial,  iv.  62. 

**  Venit  in  Herculeos  colles  :  quid  Tiburis  alti 
Aura  valet  ?  " 

Mart.  vii.  12. 

*'Nec  mihi  plus  Nemee,  priscumve  habitabitur  Argos, 
Nee  Tiburna  domus,  solisque  cubilia  Gades." 

Stat.  Silv.  iii.  I.  182. 

**Quosque  sub  Herculeis  taciturno  flumine  muris 
Pomifera  arva  creant  Anienicolae  Catilli." 

Sil.  Ital.  iv.  224. 

We  re-enter  the  town  by  a  gate  with  Ghibelline  battle- 
ments, near  which  are  two  curious  mediaeval  houses,  one 
with  a  beautiful  outside  loggia.  Passing  through  the  dirty 
streets  almost  to  the  Porta  Santa  Croce,  by  which  we  entered 
Tivoli,  a  narrow  alley  on  the  right  leads  us  to  a  little 
square,  one  side  of  which  is  occupied  by  the  Cathedral  of 
S.  Francesco,  a  picturesque  little  building,  with  a  good  rose- 
window.  Behind  the  church  is  a  ce//a  of  the  age  of  Au- 
gustus, which  some  antiquaries  have  referred  to  the  temple 
of  Hercules. 

"  But  it  would  be  difficult  to  regard  these  vestiges  as  forming  part  of 
a  temple  150  feet  in  circumference,  nor  was  it  usual  to  erect  the  princi- 
pal Christian  church  on  the  foundations  of  a  heathen  temple.  It  is  pretty 
certain,  however,  that  the  Forum  of  Tibur  was  near  the  cathedral,  and 
occupied  the  site  of  the  present  Piazza  dell'  Ormo  and  its  environs,  as 
appears  from  a  Bull  of  Pope  Benedict  VII.,  in  the  year  978.  The  round 
temple  at  the  cathedral  belonged  therefore  to  the  Forum,  as  well  as 
the  crypto-porticus,  now  called  Porto  di  Ercole  in  the  street  del  Foggio. 
The  exterior  of  this  presents  ten  closed  arches  about  2C»  feet  in  length, 


VILLA  D'ESTE.  ^ 

which  still  retain  traces  of  the  red  plaster  with  which  they  were  coveretl. 
Each  arch  has  three  loop-holes  to  serve  as  windows.  The  interior  is 
divided  into  two  apartments  or  halls,  by  a  row  of  28  slender  pillars. 
Traces  of  arabesque  painting  on  a  black  ground  may  still  be  seen.  The 
mode  of  building  shows  it  to  be  of  the  same  period  as  the  circular 
remains. " — Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Roman  Geography. 

Close  to  the  Cathedral  is  the  door  of  the  famous  Villa 
cCEste^  where  we  are  admitted  on  ringing  a  bell,  and  cross- 
ing a  court-yard,  and  descending  a  long  vaulted  passage,  are 
allowed  unaccompanied  to  enter  and  wander  about  in  one  of 
the  grandest  and  wildest  and  most  impressive  gardens  in 
the  world.  The  villa  itself,  built  in  1549,  by  Pirro  Ligorio, 
for  Cardinal  Ippolito  d'Este,  son  of  Alfonso  II.,  Duke  of 
Ferrara,  is  stately  and  imposing  in  its  vast  forms,  bold 
outlines,  and  deeply-projecting  cornices.  Beneath  it  runs  a 
broad  terrace  (rather  too  much  grown  up  now),  ending  in  an 
archway,  which  none  but  the  most  consummate  artist  would 
have  placed  where  it  stands,  in  glorious  relief  against  the 
soft  distances  of  the  many-hued  Campagna.  Beneath  the 
twisted  staircases  which  lead  down  from  this  terrace,  fountains 
send  up  jets  of  silvery  spray  on  every  succeeding  level 
against  the  dark  green  of  the  gigantic  cypresses,  which  line  the 
main  avenue  of  the  garden,  and  which  also,  interspersed  with 
the  richer  verdure  of  Acacias  and  Judas  trees,  snowy  or  crim- 
son with  flowers  in  spring,  stand  in  groups  on  the  hill-side, 
with  the  old  churches  of  Tivoli  and  the  heights  of  Monte 
Catillo  seen  between  them.  The  fountains  at  the  sides  of 
the  garden  are  colossal,  like  everything  else  here,  and  over- 
grown with  maiden-hair  fern,  and  water  glitters  everywhere 
in  stone  channels  through  the  dark  arcades  of  thick  foliage. 
Flowers  there  are  few,  except  the  masses  of  roses,  guelder 
roses,  and  lilacs,  which  grow  and  blossom  where  they  will. 


204  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  villa  now  belongs  to  the  Duke  of  Modena,  the  direct 
descendant  of  its  founder. 

(Those  who  return  to  Rome  the  same  evening  will  do  well 
to  order  their  carriages  to  wait  for  them  at  the  entrance  of 
the  Villa  d'Este.) 

Outside  the  Porta  Santa  Croce  are  the  old  Jesuits'  College, 
with  its  charming  terrace  called  La  Veduta,  and  the  Vil/.a 
Braschi,  in  whose  cellar  the  aqueduct  of  the  Anio  Novus 
may  be  seen.  Some  disappointment  will  doubtless  be  felt 
at  the  uncertainty  which  hangs  over  the  different  homes  of 
the  poets  at  Tivoli,  especially  over  that  of  Horace,  which 
was  near  the  grove  of  Tiburnus ;  *  but  then,  though  the  actual 
ruins  pointed  out  to  us  may  not  have  belonged  to  them, 
there  is  so  much  of  which  they  tell  us  that  remains  un- 
changed, the  luxuriant  woods,  the  resounding  Anio,  the 
thymy  uplands,  that  the  very  atmosphere  is  alive  with  their 
verses ;  and  amid  such  soul-inspiring  loveliness,  one  cannot 
wonder  that  Tibur  was  beloved  by  them. 

"  Mihi  jam  non  regia  Roma, 
Sed  vacuum  Tibur  placet." 

Horace^  i  Ep.  7. 

"  Vaster,  Camoenge,  vester  in  arduos 
Tollor  Sabinos  :  seu  mihi  frigidum 
Prseneste,  seu  Tibur  supinum, 
Seu  liquidae  placuere  Baise." 


iii.  Od.  4. 


"...   Ego,  apis  Matins 
More  modoque 
Grata  carpentis  thyma  per  laborem 
Plurimum,  circa  nemus  uvidique 
Tiburis  ripas,  operosa  parvus 
Carmina  fingo." 

•  Suet.  Vit.  Hor. 


iv.  Od.  2. 


HOMES  OF  THE  POETS.  20J 

*'  Sed  quK  Tibur  aquae  fertile  pnefluunt, 
Et  spissae  nemorum  comae, 

Fingent  ^olio  carmine  nobilem. " 

iv.  Od.  3. 

"  Que  de  vers  charmants  dans  Horace,  consacres  h.  peindre  ce  Tibur 
tant  aime,  ce  delicieux  Tivoli  dont  il  est  si  doux  de  gouter  apres  lui, 
je  dirai  presque  avec  lui,  les  imperissables  enchantements  !  Comment 
ne  pas  y  murmurer  cette  ode  ravissante  dans  laquelle,  apres  avoir 
6numere  les  beaux  lieux  qu'il  avait  admires  dans  son  voyage  de  Grece, 
revenant  k  son  cher  Tibur,  il  s'ecrie,  comme  d'autres  pourraient  le  faire 
aussi :  *  Rien  ne  m'a  frappe  autant  que  la  demeure  retentissante 
d'Albunee,  I'Anio  qui  tombe,  le  bois  sacre  de  Tibumus,  et  les  vergers 
qu'arrosent  les  eaux  vagabondes  ! ' 

*  Quam  domus  Albuneae  resonantis, 
Et  praeceps  Anio,  ac  Tiburni  lucus,  et  uda 
Mobilibus  pomaria  rivis. ' 

Carm.  i.  7,  12. 

Est-il  rien  de  plus  gracieux,  de  plus  sonore,  et  de  plus  frais  ?  Malheur- 
eusement  il  ne  reste  d' Horace  ^  Tivoli  que  les  cascatelles,  dont  le  mur- 
mure  semble  un  echo  de  ses  vers.  Les  mines  qu'on  montre  au  voyageur, 
comme  celles  de  la  maison  d'Horace,  ne  lui  ont  jamais  appartenu, 
bien  que  dej^  du  temps  de  Suetone  k  Tibur  on  fit  voir  au  curieux  la 
maison  du  poete."— ^»//<?/r,  Emp.  Rom.  i.  360. 

Catullus  had  a  villa  here  on  the  boundary  between  the 
Sabine  and  Tiburtine  territories,  but  which  he  chose  to 
consider  in  the  latter,  while  his  friends,  if  they  wished  to 
tease  him,  said  it  was  Sabine  : — 

"0  funde  noster,  seu  Sabine,  seu  Tiburs 
(Nam  te  esse  Tiburtem  autumant,  quibus  non  est 
Cordi  CatuUum  laedere  :  at  quibus  cordist, 
Quovis  Sabinum  pignore  esse  contendunt), 
Sed  seu  Sabine  sive  verius  Tiburs, 
Fui  libenter  in  tua  suburbana 
Villa,  malamque  pectore  expuli  tussim. " 

Carm,  44- 

Here  also  lived  •*  Cynthia,"  whose  real  name  was  Hostia, 
the  beloved  of  Propertius,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  test  his 


205  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

devotion  by  summoning  him  to  face  the  dangers  of  the  road 
from  Rome  to  Tibur  at  midnight. 

**Nox  media,  et  domin?e  mihi  venit  epistola  nostrae, 
Tibure  me  missa  jussit  adesse  mora, 
Candida  qua  geminas  ostendunt  culmina  turres, 
Et  cadit  in  patulos  lympha  Aniena  lacus. " 

iii.  El.  1 6. 

And  here  she  died  and  was  buried,  and  her  spirit,  appearing 
to  her  lover,  besought  him  to  take  care  of  her  grave. 

"Telle  hederam  tumulo,  mihi  quae  pugnante  corymbo 
Mollia  contortis  alligat  ossa  comis. 
Pomosis  Anio  qua  spumifer  incubat  arvis, 

Et  nunquam  Herculeo  numine  pallet  ebur. 
Hie  carmen  media  dignum  me  scribe  columna, 

Sed  breve,  quod  currens  vector  ab  urbe  legat, 
Hie  Tiburtina  jacet  aurea  Cynthia  terra  : 
Accessit  ripae  laus,  Aniene,  tuae. " 

V.  7. 

Beyond  the  Porta  Santa  Croce  is  the  suburb  Carciano,  a 
corruption  from  Cassianum,  its  name  in  the  loth  century 
from  the  villa  of  the  gens  Cassia,  of  which  there  are  con- 
siderable remains  beneath  the  Greek  College.  From  the 
excavations  made  here  in  the  reign  of  Pius  VI.  many  of  the 
finest  statues  in  the  Vatican  were  obtained,  especially  those 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Muses. 

Painters,  and  all  who  stay  long  enough  at  Tivoli,  should 
not  fail  to  \isit  the  picturesque  rums  of  the  Marcian  and 
Claudian  aqueducts  beyond  the  Porta  S.  Giovanni.  Delight- 
ful excursions  may  also  be  made  to  Subiaco,  to  S.  Cosimato 
and  Licenza,  to  Monte  Gennaro,  and  to  Montecelli.  A 
pleasant  road  leads  by  the  old  castle  of  Passerano  and 
Zagarolo  to  Palestrina. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
LICENZA  AND  MONTE  GENNARO. 

(This  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  excursions  from  Tivoli. 
A  carriage  may  be  taken  from  Tivoli  to  the  farm  of  Horace  itself,  or 
good  walkers  may  take  the  morning  diligence  to  Subiaco  as  far  as  S. 
Cosimato,  and  walk  from  thence  to  Licenza,  returning  to  meet  the  dili- 
gence in  the  evening.  For  the  excursion  to  Monte  Gennaro,  horses 
must  be  ordered  beforehand.) 

SOON  after  leaving  Tivoli  some  magnificent  arches  of 
the  Claudian  Aqueduct  are  seen  crossing  a  ravine  on 
the  left,  through  which  a  road  leads  to  Ampiglione  (probably 
the  ancient  Empulum),  where  some  of  the  ancient  walls  re- 
main. Then,  also  on  the  left,  rises  the  most  picturesque 
village  of  Castel  Madama  crowning  a  ridge  of  hill.  Then 
the  road  passes  close  to  some  ruins  supposed  to  be  those  of 
the  tomb  of  C.  Maenius  Bassus  of  the  time  of  Caligula. 

Seven  miles  from  Tivoli  we  reach  Vicovaro,  the  Varia  of 
Horace.  Some  of  the  ancient  walls  remain,  of  huge  blocks 
of  travertine.  The  place  now  belongs  to  Count  Bolognetti 
Cenci,  who  has  a  dismal  palace  here.  At  one  end  of  a 
piazza  facing  the  principal  church  in  the  upper  town,  is  the 
beautiful  Chapel  of  S.  Giacotno^  built  for  one  of  the  Orsini, 
Count  of  Tagliacozzo,  by  Simone,  a  pupil  of  Brunelleschi, 
who  (says  Vasari)  died  when  he  was  employed  upon  it.  It 
is  octagonal,  with  a   dome   crowned   by  the  figure   of  a 


2o8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

saint.  The  Italian-gothic  is  very  peculiar.  The  prin- 
cipal door  is  richly  adorned  with  saints :  above  are  angels 
floating  over  the  Virgin  and  Child,  their  attitude  of  adoration 
very  beautiful.  Santa  Severa  is  buried  here,  as  well  as 
at  Anagni !  Pope  Pius  II.  in  his  "Commentaria"  (LVI.) 
speaks  of  this  church  as  "  nobile  sacellum  ex  marmore  candi- 
dissimo,"  and  as  adorned  with  "  statuis  egregiis."  Of  late 
years  it  has  become  important  as  a  place  of  pilgrimage  from 
"  the  miraculous  picture  "  which  it  contains. 

"  Outside  the  church  was  a  stall,  at  which  I  bought  a  copy  of  a  hymn 
addressed  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  '  to  their  miraculous  picture 
of  the  most  Holy  Mary  our  advocate,  which  on  July  22,  1868,  began  to 
move  its  eyes  miraculously.'  Then  follows  the  hymn,  which  is  poor 
enough.  Inside  the  church,  over  the  high  altar,  surrounded  with 
decorations  and  with  lights,  is  placed  the  picture,  a  beautiful  one,  full 
of  feeling  and  pathos.  The  hands  are  united  as  in  prayer,  and  the  face 
is  turned  upwards,  the  eyes  being  large  and  lustrous,  and  in  the  very 
act  of  beginning  to  weep.  It  is  a  work  of  the  school  of  Guido,  and 
might  be  by  the  master  himself. 

"Before  the  altar  were  kneeling  a  group  oicontadini^  or  country  people, 
on  their  way  from  the  Easter  services  at  Rome.  The  priest  was  kneeling 
at  the  altar,  singing  the  Litany  of  the  Virgin,  in  which  she  is  addressed 
in  direct  prayer,  '  Mother  of  mercy,  have  mercy  on  us  : '  '  Mother  of 
grace,  have  mercy  upon  us,'  &c. :  the  contadini  repeating  the  ^Miserere 
nobis '  after  each  title  of  invocation  had  been  given  out  by  the  priest. 
This  being  ended,  the  worshippers  all  bent  down  and  kissed  the  pave- 
ment, and  then  went  backwards  out  of  the  church,  bowing  repeatedly 
as  they  passed  down  the  nave. 

"  Meantime  we  were  invited  into  the  sacristy  to  see  the  book  of  testi- 
monials to  the  fact  of  the  miracle.  The  witnesses  were  many,  of  all 
nations.  The  purport  of  their  testimony  was  mainly  this  :  that  at  such 
a  time  the  deposer  had  seen  the  left,  or  the  right  eye,  or  both,  move  or 
enlarge,  or  fill  with  tears  ;  or  the  expression  of  the  face  change,  or  the 
throat  become  agitated.  Many  of  the  depositions  were  accompanied 
with  fervent  expressions  of  thankfulness  and  joy. 

"  Now  as  to  the  account  to  be  given  of  the  phenomena  thus  deposed  to. 
It  is  well  known  that  certain  arrangements  of  lines  and  of  colours  cause 
the  appearance,  when  long  contemplated,  of  imsteadiness  and  of  motion 


LUCRETIUS.  209 

in  a  picture  :  especially  if  combined  with  the  representation  of  an  ex- 
pression of  countenance  itself  emotioned,  and,  if  I  may  thus  use  the 
word,  transitional.  Now  this  last  is  eminently  the  case  at  Vicovaro.  I 
am  convinced,  that  were  I  a  devotee  kneeling  before  that  picture,  I 
could  in  ten  minutes  imagine  it  to  undergo  any  such  change  as  those 
recorded  in  the  book.  All  is  engaging,  lustrous,  suggestive." — Dean 
Alford,  1865. 

A  short  distance  beyond  Vicovaro,  almost  opposite  the 
convent  of  S.  Cosimato  (see  ch.  xix.),  a  road  to  the  left 
turns  up  the  valley  of  Licenza.  On  the  right  is  the 
castle  of  the  Marchese  del  Gallo.  About  two  miles  up  the 
valley,  on  the  left,  the  castle  of  Rocca  Giovane  is  seen  rising 
above  its  little  town.  Here  was  a  temple  of  Vacuna,  the 
Victoria  of  the  Sabines. 

The  scenery  is  now  classical,  for : — 

**  where  yon  bar 
Of  girdling  mountains  intercepts  the  sight 
The  Sabine  farm  was  till'd,  the  weary  bard's  delight. " 

Childe  Harold. 

The  village  upon  the  right,  Bardella^  is  Mandela.  Be- 
tween ns  and  it  flows  the  brook  Licenza^  the  Digentia  of 
Horace ;  the  hill  in  front,  Monte  Libretti^  is  the  famous 
Mons  Lucretilis. 

*'  Me  quoties  reficit  gelidus  Digentia  rivus, 
Quern  Mandela  bibit,  rugosus  frigore  pagus  ; 
Quid  sentire  putas  ?  quid  credis,  amice,  precari  ? 
Sit  mihi  quod  nunc  est." 

i.  Epist.  xviii.  104. 

Velox  amoenum  sDepe  Lucretilem 
Mutat  Lycaeo  Faunus,  et  igneam 
Defendit  sestatem  capellis 
Usque  meis  pluviosque  ventos. 

i.  Ode  17. 

"  Le  veritable  pelerinage  k  la  demeure  champetre  d'Horace,  c'est 
celui  qu'on  peut  faire  a  sa  villa  de  la  Sabine,  dont  I'emplacement  a  etc 
VOL.  I.  14 


2IO  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

si  bien  determine,  pres  de  Rocca  Giovane,  par  M.  Rosa.  S'il  ne  reste 
de  la  maison  que  des  briques  et  des  pierres  enfouies  a  I'endroit  oti  une 
esplanade  en  fait  connaitre  aujourd'hui  I'emplacement,  les  lieux 
d'alentour  portent  des  noms  dans  lesquels  on  a  pu  retrouver  les  anciens 
noms.  Varia  (Ep.  i.  14,  3)  est  Vico  Varo  ;  la  village  de  Matidela  (Ep. 
i.  18,  105),  dont  Horace  etait  voisin,  s'appelle  Bardella ;  la  Digentia 
(Ep.  i.  18,  104)  est  devenue  la  Licenza.  II  y  a  aussi  la  fontaine 
^  Oratini,  et,  tout  pres  des  debris  de  I'habitation,  la  colline  du  poete, 
colle  del  Poetello.  On  a  reconnu  encore  le  mont  Lucretile,  qui  protegeait 
les  chevres  d'Horace  contre  I'ardeur  de  I'ete  et  les  vents  pluvieux  (Carm. 
i.  13,  1—4). 

*'  Cette  villa  est  celle  que  Mecene  avait  donnee  a  Horace.  C'etait  *  ce 
champ  modeste  qu'il  avait  reve,  avec  un  jardin,  aupres  d'une  eau 
toujours  vive  '  (Sat.  ii.  6,  2,  et  Ep.  iii.  16,  12) — celle  qui  s'appelle 
tncoxQ  fonte  d'' Oratini^ — et  un  peu  de  forets  au-dessus.'  La  vegetation  a 
ete  changee  par  la  culture,  mais  les  grands  traits  du  paysage  subsistent. 
L'on  voit  toujours  la  chaine  des  montagnes  qui  est  coupee  par  une 
vallee  profonde,  celle  ou  coule  la  Licenza  ;  et  Ton  pent  remarquer  la 
justesse  de  tcus  les  details  de  cette  description,  que  le  poete  semble 
s'excuser  de  faire  si  longue,*  loquaciter^  et  qui  est  renfermee  dans  quelques 
vers  cbarmants  et  precis : 

*  Continui  montes  nisi  dissdcientur  opaca 
Valle ;  sed  ut  veniens  dextrum  latus  aspiciet  sol, 
Lasvum  decedens  curru  fugiente  vaporet.' — Ep.  i.  16,  5." 
Ampere^  Emp.  Rom.  i.  363. 

The  Sabine  farm  was  presented  to  Horace  by  Maecenas,  c 
B.  c.  zz- 

■  "To  the  munificence  of  Maecenas  we  owe  that  peculiar  charm  of  the 
lioratian  poetry,  that  it  represents  both  the  town  and  country  life  of  the 
Romans  of  ttiat  age;  the  country  life,  not  only  in  the  rich  and  luxurious 
villa  of  the  wealthy  at  Tivoli,  or  at  Baiae ;  but  in  the  secluded  retreat 
and  among  the  simple  manners  of  the  peasantry.  It  might  seem  as  if 
the  wholesome  air  which  the  poet  breathed,  during  his  retirement  on  his 
farm,  re-invigorated  his  natural  manliness  of  mind.  There,  notwith- 
standing his  love  of  convivial  enjoyment  in  the  palace  of  Maecenas  and 
other  wealthy  fi-iends,  he  delighted  to  revert  to  his  own  sober  and  frugal 
way  of  living." — Milman. 

The  road  comes  to  an  end  on  the  margin  of  the  clear 


LICENZA. 


211 


brook  Digentia,  which  is  here  sometimes  swollen  into  a 
broad  river  by  the  winter  rains.  On  the  further  side  of  the 
wide  stonv  bed  it  has  made  for  itself,  rises  Licenza^  cresting 


Licenza. 


a  high  hill  and  approached  by  a  steep  rocky  path  through 
ihe  olives.  Further  up  the  valley  is  the  "  Fonte  Blandusino," 
still  pointed  out  as  the  spring  of  Horace.  Just  where  the 
read  ends,  a  steep  bank  covered  with  chestnuts  rises  on  the 
left.  Passing  through  the  wood  (only  a  few  steps  from  the 
road)  to  a  garden,  we  find  a  contadlno^  who  shovels  up  the 
rich  loam  with  his  spade,  exposes  a  bit  of  tesselated  pave- 
ment, and  says  "  Ecco  la  villa  d'Orazio." 

"  The  Sabine  farm  was  situated  in  the  valley  of  Ustica,  thirty  miles 
from  Rome,  and  twelve  miles  from  Tivoli.  It  possessed  the  attraction, 
no  small  one  to  Horace,  of  being  very  secluded — Varia  (Vico  Varo),  the 
nearest  town,  being  four  miles  off — yet,  at  the  same  time,  within  an 
easy  distance  of  Rome.  When  his  spirits  wanted  the  stimulus  of  society 
or  the  bustle  of  the  capital,  which  they  often  did,  his  ambling  mule 
could  speedily  convey  him  thither;  and  when  jaded,  on  the  other  hand, 
by  the  noise  and  racket  and  dissipations  of  Rome,  he  could,  in  the  same 


212  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

homely  way,  bury  himself  within  a  few  hours  among  the  hills,  and 
there,  under  the  shadow  of  his  favourite  Lucretilis,  or  by  the  banks  of  the 
clear-flowing  and  ice-cold  Digentia,  either  stretch  himself  to  dream  upon 
the  grass,  lulled  by  the  murmurs  of  the  stream,  or  do  a  little  farming  in 
the  way  of  clearing  his  fields  of  stones,  or  turning  over  a  furrow  here 
and  there  with  the  hoe.  There  was  a  rough  wildness  in  the  scenery 
and  a  sharpness  in  the  air,  both  of  which  Horace  liked,  although,  as 
years  advanced  and  his  health  grew  more  delicate,  he  had  to  leave  it  in 
the  colder  months  for  Tivoli  or  Baise.  He  built  a  villa  upon  it,  or 
added  to  one  already  there,  the  traces  of  which  still  exist.  The  farm 
gave  employment  to  five  families  of  free  coloni,  who  were  under  the 
superintendence  of  a  bailiff;  and  the  poet's  domestic  establishment  was 
composed  of  eight  slaves.  The  site  of  the  farm  is  at  the  present  day  a 
favourite  resort  of  travellers,  of  Englishmen  especially,  who  visit  it  in 
such  numbers,  and  trace  its  features  with  such  enthusiasm,  that  the 
resident  peasantry,  *  who  cannot  conceive  of  any  other  source  of  interest 
in  one  so  long  dead  and  unsainted  than  that  of  co-patriotism  or  consan- 
guinity, '  believe  Horace  to  have  been  an  Englishman.  *  What  aspect  it 
presented  in  Horace's  time  we  gather  from  one  of  his  Epistles  "(i.  i6)  : — 

*'  About  my  farm,  dear  Quinctius:  You  would  know 
What  sort  of  produce  for  its  lord  'twill  grow ; 
Plough-land  is  it,  or  meadow-land,  or  soil 
For  apples,  vine-clad  elms,  or  olive-oil  ? 
So  (but  you'll  think  me  garrulous)  I'll  write 
A  full  description  of  its  form  and  site. 
In  long  continuous  lines  the  mountains  run, 
Cleft  by  a  valley,  which  twice  feels  the  sun — 
Once  on  the  right,  when  first  he  lifts  his  beams ; 
Once  on  the  left,  when  he  descends  in  streams. 
You'd  praise  the  climate  well,  and  what  d'ye  say 
To  sloes  and  cornels  hanging  from  the  spray? 
What  to  the  oak  and  ilex,  that  afford 
Fruit  to  the  cattle,  shelter  to  their  lord  ? 
What,  but  that  rich  Tarentum  must  have  been 
Transplanted  nearer  Rome,  with  all  its  green  ? 
Then  there's  a  fountain,  of  sufficient  size 
To  name  the  river  that  takes  thence  its  rise — 
Not  Thracian  Hebrus  colder  or  more  pure, 
Of  power  the  head's  and  stomach's  ills  to  cure. 

•  Letter  by  Mr  Dennis :  Milman's  "  Horace,"  London,  1849,  p.  loq. 


HORACES  FARM.  213 

This  sweet  retirement — nay,  'tis  more  than  sweet — 
Insures  my  health  even  in  September's  heat."  (C) 

Here  is  what  a  recent  tourist  found  it :  * — 

••  Following  a  path  along  the  brink  of  the  torrent  Digentia,  we  passed 
a  towering  rock,  on  which  once  stood  Vacuna's  shrine,  and  entered  a 
pastoral  region  of  well-watered  meadow-lands,  enamelled  with  flowers 
and  studded  with  chestnut  and  fruit  trees.  Beneath  their  sheltering 
shade  peasants  were  whiling  away  the  noontide  hours.  Here  sat 
Daphnis  piping  sweet  witching  melodies  on  a  reed  to  his  rustic  Phidyle, 
whilst  Lydia  and  she  wove  wreaths  of  wild  flowers,  and  Lyce  sped 
down  to  the  edge  of  the  stream  and  brought  us  cooling  drink  in  a  bulging 
conca  borne  on  her  head.  Its  waters  were  as  deliciously  refreshing  as 
they  could  have  been  when  the  poet  himself  gratefully  recorded  how 
often  they  revived  his  strength ;  and  one  longed  to  think,  and  hence 
half  believed,  that  our  homely  Hebe,  like  her  fellows,  was  sprung  from 
the  coloni  who  tilled  his  fields  and  dwelt  in  the  five  homesteads  of 
which  he  sings.  .  .  .  Near  the  little  village  of  Licenza,  standing  like 
its  loftier  neighbour,  Civitella,  on  a  steep  hill  at  the  foot  of  Lucretilis, 
we  turned  off  the  path,  crossed  a  thickly- wooded  knoll,  and  came  to  an 
orchard  in  which  two  young  labourers  were  at  work.  We  asked  where 
the  remains  of  Horace's  farm  were.  *  A  pie  tui  ! '  answered  the  nearest 
of  them  in  a  dialect  more  like  Latin  than  Italian.  So  saying,  he  began 
with  a  shovel  to  uncover  a  massive  floor  in  very  fair  preservation ;  a 
little  farther  on  was  another,  crumbling  to  pieces.  Chaupy  has  luckily 
saved  one  all  doubt  as  to  the  site  of  the  farm,  establishing  to  our  minds 
convincingly  that  it  could  scarcely  have  stood  on  ground  other  than 
that  on  which  at  this  moment  we  were.  As  the  shovel  was  clearing  the 
floors,  we  thought  how  applicable  to  Horace  himself  were  the  lines  he 
addressed  to  Fuscus  Aristius, — *  Naturam  expelles,'  etc. 

'  Drive  Nature  forth  by  force,  she'll  turn  and  rout 
The  false  refinements  that  would  keep  her  out,'  (C) 

for  here  was  just  enough  of  his  house  left  to  show  how  Nature,  creeping 
on  step  by  step,  had  overwhelmed  his  handiwork  and  re-asserted  her 
sway.  Again,  pure  and  Augustan  in  design  as  was  the  pavement 
before  us,  how  little  could  it  vie  with  the  hues  and  odours  of  the  grasses 
that  bloomed  around  it ! — *  Deterius  Lybicis,'  etc. 

•  Is  springing  grass  less  sweet  to  nose  and  eyes 
Than  Libyan  marble's  tesselated  dyes  ? '  (c.) 

•  "  Pall  Mall  Gazette,"  August  16,  i86q. 


214  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

•'  Indeed,  so  striking  were  these  coincidences  that  we  were  as  nearly 
as  possible  going  off  on  the  wrong  tack,  and  singing  *  lo  Paean  '  to 
Dame  Nature  herself  at  the  expense  of  the  bard;  but  we  were  soon 
brought  back  to  our  allegiance  by  a  sense  of  the  way  in  which  all  we 
saw  tallied  with  the  description  of  him  who  sang  of  Nature  so  surpass- 
ingly well,  who  challenges  posterity  in  charmed  accents,  and  could  shape 
the  sternest  and  most  concise  of  tongues  into  those  melodious  cadence?, 
that  invest  his  undying  verse  with  all  the  magic  of  music  and  all 
the  freshness  of  youth.  For  this  was  clearly  the  '  Angulus  iste,'  the 
nook  which  '  restored  him  to  himself ' — this  the  lovely  spot  which 
his  steward  longed  to  exchange  for  the  slums  of  Rome.  Below  lay  the 
green  sward  by  the  river,  where  it  was  sweet  to  recline  in  slumber. 
Here  grew  the  vine,  still  trained,  like  his  own,  on  the  trunks  and 
branches  of  trees.  Yonder  the  brook  which  the  rain  would  swell  till  it 
overflowed  its  margin,  and  his  lazy  steward  and  slaves  were  fain  to  bank 
it  up;  and  above,  among  a  wild  jumble  of  hills,  lay  the  woods  where, 
on  the  Calends  of  March,  Faunus  interposed  to  save  him  from  the  attack 
of  the  wolf  as  he  strolled  along  unarmed,  singing  of  the  soft  voice  and 
sweet  smiles  of  his  Lalage  !  The  brook  is  now  nearly  dammed  up  ;  a 
wall  of  close-fitting  rough-hewn  stones  gathers  its  waters  into  a  still, 
dark  pool ;  its  overflow  gushes  out  in  a  tiny  rill  that  rushed  down  beside 
our  path,  mingling  its  murmur  with  the  hum  of  myriads  of  insects  that 
swarmed  in  the  air." — Horace,  by  Theo.  Martin  in  ^^  Classics  for  Eng- 
lish Readers^ 

Visitors  to  Licenza  will  be  glad  further  to  beguile  the  long 
drive  with  the  following  extract : — 

'*  Entering  the  valley  which  opens  to  the  north.  On  a  height  which 
rises  to  the  right  stand  two  villages,  Cantalupo  and  Bardela ;  the  latter 
is  supposed  to  be  the  Mandela,  which  the  poet  describes  as  rugosus 
frigore pagus ;  and,  certes,  it  stands  in  an  airy  position,  at  the  point  of 
junction  of  the  two  valleys.  You  soon  come  to  a  small  stream,  of  no 
remarkable  character,  but  it  is  the  Digentia,  the  gelidus  riviis,  at  which 
the  poet  was  wont  to  slake  his  thirst — me  quoties  reficit — and  which 
flows  away  through  the  meadows  to  the  foot  of  the  said  hill  of  Bardela 
— quern  Mandela  bibit.  You  are  now  in  the  Sabine  valley,  so  fondly 
loved  and  highly  prized. 

*  Cur  valle  permutem  Sabini 
Divitias  operosiores  ? ' 

"  A  long  lofty  ridge  forms  the  left-hand  barrier  of  the  valley.  It  is 
Lucretilis.     It  has  no  striking  features  to  attract  the  eye — with  its  easy 


HORACES  FARM.  215 

swells,  undulating  outline,  and  slopes  covered  with  wood,  it  well  merits 
the  title  of  amcenus,  though  that  was  doubtless  due  to  its  grateful  shade, 
rather  than  to  its  appearance.  Ere  long  you  espy,  high  up  beneath  the 
brow  of  the  mountain,  a  village  pushed  on  a  precipitous  grey  cliflf.  It 
is  Rocca  Giovane,  now  occupying  the  site  of  the  ruined  temple  of 
Vacuna. 

'*  On  a  conical  height  in  this  valley  stands  the  town  of  Licenza  ;  while 
other  loftier  heights  tower  behind,  from  which  the  village  of  Civitella, 
apparently  inaccessible,  looks  down  on  the  valley  like  an  eagle  from  its 
eyrie.  In  the  foreground  a  knoll  crested  with  chestnuts,  rising  some 
eighty  or  hundred  feet  above  the  stream,  marks  the  site  of  the  much- 
sung  farm. 

*•  This  knoll  stands  at  a  bend  of  the  stream,  or  rather  at  the  point 
where  several  rivulets  unite  to  form  the  Digentia.  Behind  the  knoll 
stood  the  Farm.  Its  mosaic  pavement,  still  shown,  is  black  and  white, 
in  very  simple  geometrical  figures,  and,  with  the  other  remains,  is 
quite  in  harmony  with  an  abode  where 

*  Non  ebur  neque  aureum 

Mea  renidet  in  domo  lacunar ; 
Non  trabes  Hymettiae 

Premunt  columnas  ultimi  recisas 
Africa. ' 

*'  From  the  poet's  description,  we  learn  that  his  land  was  little  culti- 
vated : 

*  Quid,  si  rubicunda  leniqu^ 
Coma  vepres  et  pruna  ferunt  ?  si  quercus  et  ilex  • 
Multa  fruge  pecus,  multa  dominum  juvat  umbri  ? ' 

You  may  remember,  too,  that  he  says  of  the  neighbourhood  : — 
*  Angulus  iste  feret  piper  et  thus  ocyus  uva. ' 

**  Tempora  mutanfur,  and  soils  may  change  also — the  cultivation  of 
nineteen  centuries  has  rendered  this  more  fertile  ;  for  vines  hang  in  fes- 
toons from  tree  to  tree  over  the  site  of  his  abode  ;  the  cornels  and  sloes 
have  in  great  measure  given  way  to  the  olive  and  fig ;  and  the  walnut 
and  Spanish  chestnut  have  taken  the  place  of  the  oak  and  ilex.  Never- 
theless the  poet's  description  still  holds  good  of  the  uncultivated  spots 
in  the  neighbourhood,  which  are  overrun  with  brambles  and  are  fragrant 
with  odoriferous  herbs ;  and  until  late  years  the  ground  was  covered 
with  wood — with  cere  and  quercie,  different  kinds  of  oak,  and  with 
scarlet-holm  and  Spanish  chestnut. 

'*  The  Farm  is  situated  on  a  rising  ground,  which  sinks  with  a  gentle 


2i6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

slope  to  the  stream,  leaving  a  level  intervening  strip,  yellow  in  ihe 
harvest.  In  this  I  recognized  the  praticm  apricum  which  was  in  danger 
of  being  overflowed.  The  aprica  rura  were  probably  then,  as  now, 
sown  with  com, — puree  rivus  aqiuz,  et  segetis  lecta  fides  mece.  Here  it 
must  have  been  that  the  poet  was  wont  to  repose  after  his  meal :  prope 
rhmm  somnus  in  herbd  ;  and  here  his  personal  efforts,  perhaps,  to  dam 
out  the  stream,  provoked  his  neighbours  to  a  smile — 

*  Rident  vicini  glebas  et  saxa  mo  vent  em.'  " 

From  a  Letter  by  G.  Dennis — '■'■  De  Villa  Horatii,''^ — given  in  Mihnan^  s 

•'  Works  of  Quintus  Hor alius  Flaccus." 

Those  who  are  able  to  encounter  rather  a  rough  walk 
will  not  be  satisfied  without  trying  to  reach  the  spring, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  the  Fons  Blandusiae. 

"The  spring  now  commonly  called  the  '  Fonte  Blandusia'  rises  at 
the  head  of  a  narrow  glen,  which  opens  into  the  broader  valley  of  the 
Digentia  just  beyond  the  Farm,  and  stretches  up  for  two  or  three  miles 
into  the  heart  of  the  mountains,  dividing  Lucretilis  from  Ustica.  This 
is  evidently  the  reducta  vallis,  to  which  Tyndaris  was  invited;  and  is 
known  by  the  peasants  as  the  '  Valle  Rustica,'  than  which  no  name 
could  be  more  appropriate  ;  though  it  probably  was  not  conferred  with 
reference  to  the  scenery,  but  as  a  corruption  of  *  Ustica.'  Whether 
Ustica  Cubans  were  a  mountain  or  a  valley,  or  both,  as  hath  been  opined, 
I  leave  to  the  critics  to  determine ;  but  the  mountain  on  the  right  of  the 
glen,  which  contrasts  its  recumbent  form  with  the  steep-browed  Lucre- 
tilis, is  still  called  *  Ustica,'  and  sometimes  '  Rustica,'  by  the  peasantry. 
The  penultimate,  however,  is  now  pronounced  short.  The  streamlet  is 
called  '  Le  Chiuse ; '  it  is  the  same  which  flows  beneath  the  villa,  and 
threatens  the  '■  pratutn  apricum.''  I  ascended  its  course  from  the  Farm, 
by  the  path  which  Horace  must  have  taken  to  the  fountain.  It  flows 
over  a  rocky  bed,  here  overshadowed  by  dwarf-willows,  there  by  wide- 
spreading  fig-trees,  and  is  flanked  by  vineyards  for  some  distance. 
Then  all  cultivation  ceases — the  scenery  becomes  wilder — the  path 
steeper — the  valley  contracts  to  a  ravine — a  bare  grey  and  red  rock  rises 
on  the  right,  schistose,  rugged,  and  stem  ;  another  similar  cliff  rises  op- 
posite, crested  with  ilex,  and  overtopt  by  the  dark  head  of  Lucretilis. 
As  I  approached  the  fountain  I  came  to  an  open  grassy  spot,  where 
cattle  and  goats  were  feeding. 

'  Tu  frigus  amabile 

Fessis  vomere  tauris 

Praebes,  et  pecori  vago.' 


PONS  BLA.VDUSIyE.  217 

The  spot  is  exquisitely  Arcadian  ;  no  wonder  it  captivated  the  poet's 
fancy.  It  is  now  just  as  it  must  have  met  his  eye.  During  the  noon- 
tide heat,  the  vast  Lucretilis  thi  ows  his  grateful  shade  across  the  glen, 

*  et  igneam 
Defendit  sestatem  capellis.* 
Goats  still  wander  among  the  underwood,  cropping  ari>utos  et  thyma 
which  cover  the  ground  in  profusion,  or  frisking  amongst  the  rocks  as 
smooth-faced— /«//a  saxa — as  when  they  reechoed  the  notes  of  the  poet's 
pipe. 

"  Crossing  the  stream  by  the  huge  rocks  which  almost  choke  its  bed, 
I  climbed  through  brambles  and  sloes  to  the  fountain.  It  is  a  most 
picturesque  spot.  Large  masses  of  moss-clad  rock  lie  piled  up  in  the 
cleft  between  the  hills,  and  among  them  the  streamlet  works  its  way, 
overshadowed  by  hanging  woods  of  ilex,  beech,  horn-beam,  maple, 
chestnut,  nut,  and  walnut, — which  throw  so  dense  a  shade,  that  scarcely 
a  ray  of  the  all-glaring  sun  can  play  on  the  turf  below. 

•  Te  flagrantis  atrox  hora  Caniculoe 
Nescit  tangere  :  tu  frigus  amabile 
Praebes.' 

The  water  springs  from  three  small  holes  at  the  top  of  a  shelving 
rock  of  no  great  height,  and  glides  down  into  a  sandy  basin,  which  it 
overflows,  trickling  in  a  slender  thread  over  the  rocks  into  a  small  pool, 
and  thence  sinking  in  a  mimic  cascade  into  the  rugged  channel  which 
bears  it  down  the  glen.  From  the  rocks  which  separate  the  upper  from 
the  lower  basin  of  the  fountain,  springs  a  moss-grown  walnut  tree, 
which  stretches  its  giant  limbs  over  the  whole.  The  water  itself  merits 
all  that  has  been  said  or  sung  of  it  ;  it  is  verily  splendidior  vitro. 
Nothing — not  even  the  Thracian  Hebrus — can  exceed  it  in  purity,  cool- 
ness, and  sweetness. 

**  Hae  latebrae  dulces,  et  jam  (si  credis)  amoenae  ! ' 

Well  might  the  poet  choose  this  as  a  retreat  from  the  fierce  noon-tide  * 
heat.     Here  he  could  lie  the  live-long  day  on  the  soft  turf  and  sing 

*  ruris  amoeni 
Rivos,  et  musco  circumlita  saxa,  nemusque,' 

while  his  goats  strayed  around,  cropping  the  cyclamen  which  decks  the 
brink  of  the  fountain,  or  the  wild  strawberries  and  sweet  herbs  which 
scent  the  air  around.  Here,  while  all  nature  below  was  fainting  with  the 
heat,  might  he  enjoy  the  grateful  shade  of  Lucretilis.    Or  here  might  he 


2i8  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

well  sing  the  praises  of  the  fountain  itself,  as  he  listened  to  its  'babbling 
waters,'  and  feasted  his  eye  on  the  rich  union  of  wood  and  rock  around 
it. 

*  Me  dicente  cavis  impositam  ilicem 
Saxis,  unde  loquaces 
Lymphse  desiliunt  tuae.* 

**  Just  as  it  was  then,  so  is  it  now, — even  to  the  very  ilices  overhanging 
the  hollow  rocks  whence  it  springs.  And  so  exactly,  in  every  particular, 
does  this  fountain  answer  to  the  celebrated  Fons,  that  my  faith  in  its 
identity  is  firm  and  steadfast," — G.  Dennis. 

"  On  this  farm  lovers  of  Horace  have  been  fain  to  place  the  fountain 
of  Bandusia,  which  the  poet  loved  so  well,  and  to  which  he  prophesied, 
and  truly,  as  the  issue  has  proved,  immortality  from  his  song  {Ode\(\. 
13).  Charming  as  the  poem  is,  there  could  be  no  stronger  proof  of  the 
poet's  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  men  of  all  ages  than  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  the  very  site  of  the  spring  has  been  contested. 

*  Bandusia' s  fount  in  clearness  crystalline 

O  worthy  of  the  wine,  the  flowers  we  vow  ! 
To-morrow  shall  be  thine 
A  kid,  whose  crescent  brow 

*  Is  sprouting,  all  for  love  and  victory 

In  vain  ;  his  warm  red  blood,  so  early  stirred. 
Thy  gelid  stream  shall  dye. 
Child  of  the  wanton  herd, 

*  Thee  the  fierce  Sirian  star,  to  madness  fired. 

Forbears  to  touch  ;  sweet  cool  thy  waters  yield 
To  ox  with  ploughing  tired 
And  flocks  that  range  afield. 

*  Thou  too  one  day  shall  win  proud  eminence, 

'Mid  honoured  founts,  while  I  the  ilex  sing 
Crowning  the  cavern,  whence 

Thy  babbling  wavelets  spring.'  (C)." 

Horace,  by  T/ieo.  Martin. 

The  ascent  of  Monte  Gennaro  may  be  made  from  Licenza, 
but  it  is  better  to  make  it  from  Tivoli  itself,  whence  a  car- 
riage may  be  taken  to  Polo^  and  horses  ordered  there. 
Hence  it  is  a  constant  ascent  over  ridges  of  hill  till  we  reach 


MONTE  GENiVARO. 


219 


the  long  upland  valley  called  Val  del  Paradiso,  which  is  ex- 
ceedingly beautiful,  covered  in  spring  with  primroses,  crocuses, 
heartsease,  and  many  of  the  mountain  flowers  of  Switzerland. 
Here  herds  of  cattle  feed  under  the  shade  of  the  ilexes. 
The  last  part  of  the  ascent  is  very  steep  and  entirely  over 
rock.  The  view  from  the  top,  3,965  feet  above  the  sea,  is 
magnificent,  though  many  will  doubt  whether  it  is  sufficiently 
finer  than  that  from  Monte  Cavo,  to  repay  the  fatigue  of  an 
excursion  which  is  certainly  very  long  and  tiring,  though  it 
is  exaggerated  by  the  hotel-keepers  at  Tivoli,  and  though  the 
start  at  3  a.m.,  which  is  urged  by  them,  is  altogether  unne- 
cessary :  6  or  7  A.  M.  being  quite  early  enough. 

It  is  best  to  descend  by  the  almost  perpendicular  stair- 
case called  La  Scarpeliata,  but  the  steps  are  very  rugged  and 
of  course  can  only  be  traversed  on  foot.  There  is  a  pleasant 
ride  ^through  meadows  from  S.  Francesco,  ascending  after- 
wards by  the  olive-woods,  and  coming  up  to  Tivoli  by 
the  Madonna  del  Quintiliolo.  We  leave  a  little  to  the  right 
the  low  isolated  hills  called  Mojites  Corniculani  (which  may 
be  made  the  object  of  a  separate  excursion  from  Tivoli). 
Their  southern  height  is  occupied  by  the  village  of  Monticelli^ 
the  next  by  Colle  Cesi,  the  northern  by  S.  Angela  in 
Cappoccio.  All  the  villages  are  ruinous,  but  contain  many  pic- 
turesque bits.  S.  Angelo  is  supposed  to  occupy  the  site  of 
Corniculum,  which  was  burnt  by  Tarquin.  The  widow  of  its 
slain  chieftain,  Ocrisia,  was  taken,  after  the  siege,  to  Rome, 
where  she  was  delivered  of  a  boy,  who  was  educated  in  the 
house  of  Tarquin,  and  became  King  Servius  Tullius.  Some 
ancient  walls  of  Cyclopean  masonry  remain  :  the  interstices 
between  the  large  stones  are  filled  in  with  smaller  ones. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


VELLETRI. 


(Velletri  is  a  station  on  the  Naples  line  of  railway,  one  hour  and 
20  minutes  from  Rome.  The  Locanda  del  Gallo  is  a  comfortable 
and  reasonable  hotel.  The  vetturino  Roberto  Tasselli,  116  Strada 
Vittorio  Emmanuele,  is  an  honest  man,  and  lets  out  capital  carriages  for 
excursions.  A  carriage  for  the  day  to  Cora  costs  25  francs,  to  Ninfa  22 
francs,  but  the  price  must  be  settled  beforehand.) 

VELLETRI  is  in  many  respects  a  much  better  centre 
for  excursions  than  Albano,  being  situated  on  the  rail- 
way itself,  so  that  tourists  are  saved  the  long  drive  down  to 
the  station,  which  makes  excursions  from  the  latter  town  so 
fatiguing.  Its  streets  are  wide  and  clean,  and  the  air  healthy 
and  invigorating.  Like  Albano,  it  has  no  costumes  of  its 
own,  but  on  festas  the  people  flock  in  from  the  neighbour- 
ing villages,  and  enliven  it  with  their  white  paiini  and 
brilliant  red  and  blue  bodices.  Of  the  old  Volscian  city  of 
Velitrae,  which  once  occupied  this  site  and  which  was  so 
long  at  war  with  Rome,  there  are  many  scattered  traces, 
and  vestiges  may  be  discovered  of  the  vallum  and  fosse  with 
which  the  place  was  surrounded  by  Coriolanus.  But  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Volscian  city  were  removed  to  Rome, 
where  they  became  the  forefathers  of  the  Trasteverini,  and 
though  in  imperial  times  the  place  had  again  a  certain  im- 
portance, and  though  Augustus  himself  is  declared  by  the 


PALAZZO  LANCELLOTTL  221 

natives  to  have  been  bom  there  (in  contradiction  to  the 
account  of  Suetonius,  who  expressly  states  that  he  was  born 
at  Rome,  at  the  sign  of  the  Ox-heads,  in  the  Palatium),  the 
principal  existing  remains  are  all  mediaeval. 

From  the  station  a  gradual  ascent  leads  into  the  town, 
fringed  with  trees,  and  with  beautiful  views  of  the  Volscian 
range,  over  the  hill-side  slopes  so  rich  in  the  vines  which 
produce  the  famous  wine  of  Velletri.  The  extraordinary 
folly  which  has  affected  almost  every  town  in  Italy  since  the 
change  of  government,  has  changed  all  the  old  historical 
appellations  of  the  streets  to  the  meaningless  "  Corso 
Cavour,  Via  Vittorio  Emmanuele,  Via  Garibaldi,"  &c. 
One  whole  side  of  the  principal  square  is  occupied  by  the 
fa9ade  of  the  Palazzo  Lancellotti^  built  by  Martino  Longhi. 
The  exterior  gives  no  idea  of  the  extreme  beauty  of  the  in- 
terior, which  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  Italy.  On 
the  first  floor  is  an  open  gallery  of  immense  length,  the 
arcades  divided  by  pillars  richly  decorated  with  caryatides. 
A  marble  staircase,  with  open  loggias  on  every  landing, 
ascends  to  the  top  of  the  palace,  whence  there  is  a  glorious 
view,  and  beneath  are  beautiful  gardens  extending  to  the 
open  country.  Near  the  top  of  the  staircase  is  a  very  fine 
statue  of  Minerva  Pudicitia  (with  its  own  head,  that  at  the 
Vatican  being  an  addition)  found  at  Velletri.  The  palace 
is  now  inhabited  by  Prince  Gianetti,  who  kindly  allows  it 
to  be  shown  to  strangers,  and  it  is  well  worth  visiting. 

Opposite  the  palace  rises  the  beautiful  tall  detached  cam- 
panile of  Sa?ita  Maria  in  Trivio,  raised  to  commemorate 
the  deliverance  of  the  city  from  the  plague  in  1348,  whilst  it 
was  being  besieged  by  Nicola  Gaetani,  Lord  of  Fondi. 
Other  old  palaces  of  impoverished  nobles  abound  in  the 


222  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Sinaller  streets,  the  most  remarkable  being  the  Palazzo  Filippi, 


S.  Maria  in  Trivio,  Velletri. 

which  is  really  magnificent,  in  spite  of  its  desertion  and  decay. 
The  old  palace  of  the  popes,  now  called  Palazzo  Commun- 
aie,  built  by  Giacomo  della  Porta,  occupies  the  highest  part  of 
the  town,  the  citadel  of  old  Velitrse,  and  beside  it  stands  the 
palace  of  the  Cardinal- Archbishop,  with  a  bas-relief  on  its  front 
commemorating  the  opening  of  the  Via  Appia  Nuova  by  Pius 
IX.,  and  an  inscription  rather  inconsistent  with  present  ideas 
— "  Papalis  et  imperialis  est  mihi  libertas."  Close  to  these 
palaces  are  two  little  churches,  San  Michaele  and  //  Santissimi 
Sangue.  Over  the  door  of  the  latter  is  an  ancient  sun-dial^ 
"  Horologium  Beronianum" — foundinthe  neighbouring  ruins. 
In  the  interior  is  an  inscription  recording  a  miraculous  appear- 
ance of  the  Virgin,  and  an  altar  to  an  early  Christian  who  has  been 
canonized  on  the  belief  that  she  was  a  martyr — "  Temporalera 


CATHEDRAL   OF  VELLETRI. 


223 


mortem  S.  Tertura  Victorina  contemnenscoronamvitaeaeternae 
possidet  in  pace."   By  the  side  is  the  catacomb  inscnption : — 

URTURA   VICTORINA 
VAE   VIXIT   ANNUS    XLII 
III    MATRI    FECERUNT 
BENEMERENTI    IN    PACE. 


The  Legate's  Fountain,  Velletru 

In  the  lower  part  of  the  town  is  the  Cathedral^  dedicated 


224  -^^^  y^  NEAR  ROME. 

to  S.  Clemente,  and  partly  ancient,  though  altered  in  1660. 
It  contains  a  chapel  of  the  Borgias,  who  are  still  one  of  the 
great  families  of  the  place,  with  their  monuments.  On  the 
left  of  the  altar  is  a  beautiful  fresco  of  the  Virgin  and  Child, 
with  St.  John,  St.  Sebastian,  St.  Jerome,  and  St.  Roch,  by 
an  unknown  artist  of  the  Perugino  school.  In  the  sacristy 
is  the  iavamano,  which  Julius  II.  presented  to  the  church 
while  he  was  Cardinal- Archbishop  of  Velletri.  Latino 
Orsini,  to  whom  the  hymn  "  Dies  Irae  "  is  wrongly  attributed, 
but  who  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  prelates  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  was  also  bishop  here.  We  were  present 
on  Easter  Sunday,  when  the  existing  archbishop  performed 
high-mass  in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  countrywomen, 
kneeling  in  their  white  and  brown  panni,  and  the  sight  was 
very  imposing  and  impressive. 

Nothing  can  be  more  charming  than  the  environs  of  Vel- 
letri in  early  spring.  It  is  almost  the  only  place  near  Rome 
where  the  trees  are  allowed  to  grow  at  their  own  will,  and 
are  not  cut  into  squares,  and  the  lanes  around  are  delight- 
fully shady  and  attractive.  Gulfs  of  verdure  with  little 
streams  running  in  their  deep  hollows  may  be  discovered  in 
all  directions,  and  there  are  also  pleasant  walks  to  many 
convents  and  churches  on  neighbouring  heights.  Near  the 
Roman  gate  is  the  ascent  to  the  Cappuccini,  whence  the 
view  is  especially  fine,  the  long  lines  of  the  Pontine  marshes 
and  the  beautiful  Circean  promontory  being  seen  behind  the 
old  houses  and  churches  of  the  town.  In  this  direction  is 
the  battle-field  where  Charles  III.  of  Naples  gained  the 
victory  ovier  the  Austrians  which  gave  the  kingdom  of  the 
two  Sicilies  to  the  Spanish  Bourbons.     On  the  Naples  road 


JESUIT  CONVENT,    VELLETRI.  225 

is  the  Jesuit  Convent  containing  a  famous  Madonna  attri- 
buted to  St.  Luke,  of  which  About  tells  : — 

"  Un  hote  du  Campo-Morto  appele  Vendetta  con9ut  le  projet  d'une 
speculation  hardie,  Depuis  longtemps,  il  ran9onnait  les  gens  de  Vellctri 
et  des  environs.  II  demandait  a  celui-ci  deux  ecus,  a  celui-I^  dix  ou 
douze.  Quiconque  avait  une  recolte  sur  pied,  des  arbres  charges  de 
fruits,  un  frere  en  voyage,  payait  sans  marchander  ce  singulier  impot. 
Cependant  Vendetta  finit  par  prendre  en  degout  un  metier  si  lucratif. 
II  reva  de  rentrer  dans  la  vie  normale  avec  un  revenu  modeste  et  un 
honnete  emploi.  Pour  atteindre  ce  but,  il  ne  trouva  rien  de  plus  in- 
genieux  que  de  voler  la  madone  de  Velletri  et  de  la  deposer  en  lieu  sur. 

"  On  approchait  d'une  fete  carillonnee  oil  la  madone  devait  paraitre 
aux  yeux  du  peuple  avec  tous  ses  diamants.  Le  sacristain  ouvrait  la 
niche  et  constata  avec  des  cris  de  douleur  que  la  madone  n'y  etait  plus. 
Grande  rumeur  dans  Velletri.  On  cherche  de  tous  cotes  et  Ton  ne 
trouve  rien.  Le  peuple  s'emeut;  une  certaine  effervescence  se  manifesto 
dans  les  villages  voisins.  Le  clerge  du  pays  accuse  les  jesuites  de 
s'etre  voles  eux-memes;  les  jesuites  recriminent  contre  les  pretres  de 
Velletri.  Le  couvent  est  envahi,  fouille,  bouleverse  par  un  public 
idolatre.  Enfin  le  dimanche,  ^  la  grand'messe,  Vendetta,  arme  d'un 
poignard,  monte  en  chaire  et  se  denonce  lui-meme.  II  prie  le  peuple 
d'agreer  ses  excuses  et  promet  de  rendre  la  madone  d^s  qu'il  aura  regie 
ses  comptes  avec  I'autorite.  L'autorite  traite  avec  lui  de  puissance  a 
puissance.  Vendetta  demande  sa  grace  et  celle  de  son  frere,  une  rente 
de  tant  d'ecus  et  un  emploi  du  gouvernement.  On  promet  tout,  mais 
Rome  desavone  ses  agents  et  ne  veut  rien  ratifier.  Cependant  la  popu- 
lation des  montagnes  se  met  en  marche,  et  un  flot  de  paysans  menace 
d'inonder  Velletri.  Le  brigand  cede  au  nombie,  revele  la  cachette  oil 
il  a  cele  la  madone,  et  se  rend  lui-meme  ^  discretion.  II  aura  la  tete 
coupee;  personne  n'en  doute  i  Velletri." — Rome  Contemporaine. 

The  inhabitants  of  Velletri  were  formerly  famous  for  their 

brigand  tendencies  :  now  they  are  most  inoffensive.     But  a 

Roman  proverb  says 

*•  Velletrani  sette  volte  villani." 


«5 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  VOLSCIAN  HILLS— CORI,  NORBA,  NINFA, 
AND  SEGNL 

FOR  the  excursion  to  Norba  it  is  quite  necessary  to 
make  an  early  start,  and  can  anything  be  more  charm- 
ing than  six  o'clock  on  a  cloudless  morning  in  April,  if,  with 
jingling  bells,  we  drive  out  of  the  old  town  of  Velletri  and 
descend  into  the  hollow  lanes  shaded  by  fresh  green  trees 
and  gay  with  peasants  going  out  in  bands  to  the  work  of  the 
day.  The  road  winds  through  dips  in  the  low  hills.  It  is 
the  country  which  was  formerly  known  as  the  "  Volscorum 
Ager."  We  only  pass  one  village,  San  Giidiajtello.  A  little 
beyond  this,  Rocca  Massima  is  seen  on  the  top  of  a  precipice, 
but  travellers  may  reach  it  by  a  good  mountain  path,  if  they 
are  anxious  to  explore  the  site  of  the  ancient  Arx  Carven- 
tana.  An  excellent  road  ascends  to  Cori,  which  soon  be- 
comes visible,  though  its  temples  cannot  be  seen  from  here 
as  Murray  describes,  for  they  are  on  the  other  side  of  the 
hill.  Through  the  olives  there  is  a  beautiful  view  across  the 
Pontine  marshes  to  the  sea,  with  the  Circean  promontory 
and  the  neighbouring  islands.  Of  these,  the  largest  is  San 
Felice.  Then  comes  Ponza,  whither  Tiberius  banished  his 
nephew  Nero,  the  son  of  Germanicus,  and  where  many 
Christians   lived   in   exile,    or   suffered   martyrdom,   under 


ASCENT  TO  CORI.  227 

Tiberius  and  Caligula.  Lastly  we  see  Pandataria,  to  which 
Julia,  daughter  of  Augustus,  and  then  wife  of  Tiberius,  was 
banished  by  her  father.  Hither,  too,  her  beautiful  daughter, 
Agrippina,  wife  of  Germanicus,  was  banished  by  Tiberius,  and 
here  she  was  starved  to  death.  Here  also  Octavia,  the 
divorced  wife  of  Nero,  and  daughter  of  Claudius  and  Mes- 
salina,  was  banished  by  the  Empress  Poppaea,  who  forced 
her  to  commit  suicide  by  opening  her  veins. 

Thinking  of  these  associations,  and  stopping  to  gather 
honey-suckle-^^n  delta  Madonna  (because  it  generally 
flowers  in  May) — we  reach  the  gates  of  Cori.  We  must 
leave  our  carriage  here,  for  the  streets,  chiefly  staircases,  are 
too  steep  for  anything  but  mules  and  foot  passengers.  It  is 
best  to  make  our  way  first  to  the  quaint  old  inn  iri  the  Piazza 
Romana,  to  order  dinner  from  the  fat,  good-tempered  land- 
lady with  the  silver  spadello  in  her  hair,  and  to  get  the 
honest  old  landlord,  Filippo  Capobianchi,  to  provide  a 
guide,  which  is  desirable,  if  time  be  of  importance,  and 
delivers  one  from  the  swarm  of  would-be  cicerones  who 
pounce  upon  the  stranger  like  so  many  harpies.  The  inn  at 
Cori  is  quite  tolerable  as  a  resting-place,  but  is  strangely 
backward  in  civilized  knowledge.  A  friend  of  ours  who 
stayed  there  was  astonished  by  seeing  that  the  eggs  when 
boiled  were  always  bored  through  with  a  very  small  hole, 
and,  asking  the  reason,  was  told  that  of  course  it  must  be 
so,  or  they  would  burst  in  the  boiling ! 

Virgil  and  Diodorus  speak  of  Cori  as  a  colony  of  Alba 
Longa.  Pliny  asserts  that  it  was  founded  by  the  Trojan 
Dardanus.  It  was  certainly  one  of  the  thirty  cities  of  the 
Latin  League  in  B.C.  493,  and  Livy  speaks  of  it  as  in  the 
enjoyment  of  municipal  rights   during   the   second    Punic 


228 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


war.  During  this  war  it  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the  rebellious 
cities  which  refused  to  contribute  the  necessary  supplies. 
It  was  taken  and  sacked  many  years  after  by  one  of  the 
wandering  bands  of  Spartacus.  Propertius  and  Lucan 
describe  it  as  totally  ruined. 

Yet  there  are  few  places  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome 
which  have  so  many  or  such  fine  remains  of  antiquity  as 
Cori.  In  mounting  to  the  upper  town,  three  distinct  tiers  of 
its  ancient  walls  may  be  traced.  The  first,  in  the  lower 
town,  built  of  polygonal  blocks,  has  their  interstices  filled  up 


"Bk 


Temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  Cori. 


with  smaller  stones  ;  the  second,  near  Santa  Oliva,  has  poly- 
gonal blocks  alone,  very  carefully  fitted ;  and  the  third,  at 
the  top  of  the  hill,  is  still  polygonal,  but  of  ruder  construc- 
tion. Behind  some  wretched  houses  are  two  columns  still 
standing,  with  beautiful  Corinthian  capitals,  a  fragment  of 


TEMPLES  OF  CORI. 


229 


the  Temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  as  is  proved  by  still  legible 
inscriptions.  Another  capital  of  the  same  temple  is  before 
a  house  door  a  little  further  up  the  ascent.  The  adjoining 
house  to  this  temple  is  called  the  Palace  of  Pilate.  On  the 
top  of  the  hill  stands  the  church  of  S.  Pietro,  where  the  font 
(in  the  first  chapel  on  the  right)  is  sustained  by  a  sculptured 
marble  altar,  adorned  with  rams'  heads.  Behind  the  church 
is  a  small  garden,  where  we  find  entire  the  beautiful  Doric 
peristyle  of  the  Temple  of  Minerva,  generally  known  here  as 


Temple  of  Minei^'a,  Con. 


the  Temple  of  Hercules.  Eight  columns  still  remain,  four 
in  the  front.  Here  the  figure  of  Minerva,  which  now  stands 
under  the  Senators*  palace  on  the  Roman  Capitol,  was 
found.  The  ruin  is  most  pictiuresque,  and  is  grandly  situated 
on  a  terrace. 


230  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  Whence  Cora's  sentinels  o'erlook 
The  never-ending  fen. " 

Raphael  made  a  sketch  of  it,  which  is  still  extant.  As  we 
sat  to  draw  here,  the  children,  who  were  vainly  locked  out 
by  the  Sacristan,  and  climbed  after  us  over  the  wall,  got 
pieces  of  stone  for  blocks,  and  sticks  for  pencils,  and  imi- 
tated every  line  we  made. 

Halfway  up  the  hill  is  the  beautiful  old  convent  of  Santa 
Oliva,  whose  shrine  is  in  the  crypt  at  Anagni.  She  was  a 
holy  maiden  of  Cori,  to  whom  the  Virgin  appeared  in  1521. 
Her  cloister,  with  a  double  row  of  arches,  is  most  picturesque, 
and  it  contains  an  old  well.  The  body  of  the  church  has  a 
ceiling  whose  intention  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Sistine,  re- 
presenting scenes  of  Old  and  New  Testament  story.  In  the 
apse  is  the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  evidently  by  a  pupil  of 
Pinturicchio ;  the  donor  kneels  beneath.  The  aisle  of  the 
church,  a  labyrinth  of  columns  of  different  sizes  and  designs, 
is  shown  as  the  Temple  of  Jupiter.  The  temples  of  Cori 
are  all  attributed  to  Sylla.  Outside  the  gate  of  the  town,  on 
theNorba  side,  is  the  beautiful  bridge  called  Po?itealla  Catena, 
built  of  huge  masses  of  tufa,  spanning  the  deep  ravine  of 
the  Pichionni,  and  overhung  by  quaint  old  houses. 

Norba  and  Norma  are  five  long  miles  from  Cori,  and 
can  be  reached  only  on  foot  or  on  muleback  without 
making  an  immense  detour.  A  very  steep  and  intensely 
stony  way  leads  up  the  hill-side  from  near  the  Ponte 
alia  Catena.  The  olive-gardens  beside  it  are  fringed  with 
wild  blue  iris — gigli  the  Italians  call  them,  and  the  gigU^ 
which  are  the  arms  of  Florence,  are  represented  as  iris.  The 
path  emerges  on  the  steep  of  the  mountain,  and  clambers 
along,  with  precipices  above  and  below,  amid  the  wildest 


NORBA.  231 

scenery.  All  around  are  grey  rocks,  with  short  grass  between, 
on  which  the  flocks  of  goats  pasture,  whose  shepherds,  clad 
in  goatskins,  are  the  only  human  beings  we  meet  here. 
Hawks  swoop  overhead.  It  is  a  vast  view  over  what  looks 
like  a  boundless  plain,  for  all  the  undulations  and  sinuosities 
of  the  country  are  lost  to  us  at  this  great  height.  The 
village  which  glitters  midway  between  us  and  the  sea  is  Cis- 
tema,  "  the  Three  Taverns  "  of  St.  Paul.  At  length  Sermoneta 
comes  in  sight  on  the  top  of  a  precipice,  and  then  Norma. 
Then  the  ancient  Norba^  now  often  called  Civita  la  Penna 
cfOrOj  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  Roman  colonies,  rises 
on  the  right.  It  has  been  an  utter  ruin  ever  since  the 
time  of  Sylla,  when  it  was  betrayed  into  the  hands  of 
his  general,  Lepidus,  and  the  garrison  put  themselves 
and  the  inhabitants  to  the  sword.  It  must  have  been  a 
tremendous  fortress,  for  the  walls  are  seven  thousand  feet  in 
circuit,  and  the  blocks  of  which  they  are  built,  and  on  which 
time  has  failed  to  make  any  impression,  are  often  ten  feet  hj 
length.  The  gates  may  be  traced,  and  an  inner  series  of 
walls  surrounding  the  citadel.  A  square  enclosure  sunk  in 
the  earth  is  surrounded  by  Cyclopean  walls :  its  object  is 
unknown.  Our  guide  said  that  when  the  Deluge  occurred  it 
would  have  failed  to  make  any  impression  upon  Norba — a 
very  ancient  city  at  that  time — so  strong  was  it ;  but  here  the 
rain  which  fell  was  made  of  lead,  and  the  inhabitants,  who 
were  giants,  were  all  destroyed,  and  every  house,  and  all  the 
temples  of  the  ancient  religion  of  that  time,  and  only  the 
walls  remained,  for  they  were  so  strong  that  not  even  a 
leaden  deluge  could  affect  them.  Hither  Ricchi  mentions 
that  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  people  were 
wont  to  use  magical  arts  in  the  search  for  hidden  treasure. 


232  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Norma  and  Norba  belonged  to  the  Gaetani  from  1282  to 

1618,  when  they  were  sold  to  Cardinal  Scipio  Borghese. 

"From  the  citadel,  the  panorama  of  the  Maritima  is  especially 
magnificent.  One  can  distinctly  trace  the  whole  boundary  line  of  the 
sea,  from  Antium  (Porto  d'Anzio)  to  the  Cape  of  Circe  near  Terracina, 
and  still  farther  off  one  can  distinguish  Ostia,  Pratica,  and  Ardea,  and 
many  towers  rising  like  solitary  obelisks  on  the  sea-shore.  These  watch 
towers  were  built  in  the  ninth  century,  when  the  Saracens  began  to  in- 
vade the  coasts  of  Italy ;  and  even  in  the  present  time  the  whole  of 
Italy  and  all  the  Italian  islands  are  encircled  by  these  picturesque 
towers.  ...  A  tower  gleams  on  the  sea-shore  with  the  dark  woods  reach- 
ing down  close  to  it  :  it  is  the  celebrated  castle  of  Astura.  A  mile  farther 
on  is  another  tower,  Foceverde,  so  called  from  the  river,  flowing  from  the 
marshy  wooded  wilderness  into  the  sea.  Farther  on  is  another  tower 
by  a  great  lake,  the  surface  of  which  shines  like  molten  gold,  while 
round  it  extends  a  thick  green  wood.  There  a  ghostly  stillness  surrounds 
the  traveller,  he  stands  by  the  lake  as  if  in  a  strange  world  ;  and  he  looks 
at  the  osprey  circling  above  ;  or  at  the  fisherman,  pale  with  fever,  floating 
on  his  frail  raft ;  or  at  the  half-naked  leech-seeker,  who  passes  his  life  there. 
These  are  the  Tower  and  Lake  of  Fogliano,  in  ancient  times  Clostra 
Romana,  where  LucuUus  had  a  villa.  The  Nymphseus,  that  charming 
stream  which  we  see  rushing  through  the  green  ring  of  Ninfa,  flows  into 
the  lake  of  Fogliano  ;  we  can  trace  its  course  thither,  through  the  whole 
of  the  Pontine  marsh-land.  Farther  on,  by  its  side,  the  Lago  de'  Monaci 
is  visible,  then  the  Lago  di  Crapolace  ;  finally  the  great  lake  of  Paola, 
with  its  tower  ;  and  not  far  from  this  rises  the  Cape  of  Circe,  almost  like 
an  island. 

' '  Whoever  has  not  traversed  the  Pontine  marshes  by  the  Via  Appia  as 
far  as  Terracina,  has  the  most  erroneous  idea  of  their  nature,  if  he  only 
thinks  of  horrible  morasses.  There  are  indeed  plenty  of  marshes  and 
lakes,  but  they  lie  hidden  in  forests  and  bushes,  where  the  hedge-hog, 
the  stag,  the  wild  boar,  the  buffalo,  and  the  half  wild  bull  are  roaming. 
In  May  and  June  the  Pontine  land  is  a  sea  of  flowers,  which  cover  the 
ground  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  In  summer  it  is  a  Tartarus,  where 
pale  fever  stalks,  and  torments  the  poor  shepherds  and  farm -labourers, 
who  have  to  earn  their  bread  here. 

•'  The  nearer  to  the  sea,  the  more  forest,  and  from  Norba  we  see  it  dis- 
tinctly stretching  to  the  Cape  of  Circe.  From  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber 
the  forests  of  Ostia,  of  Ardea,  of  Nettuno,  Cistema,  and  Terracina  suc- 
ceed one  another.  In  the  middle  of  these  woods  or  on  their  borders  lie 
single  farms,  principally  devoted  to  breeding  cattle,  but  also  to  agricul- 


NORMA. 


233 


ture  ;  such  are  Conca,  Campo  Morto,  Campo  Leone,  Tor'  del  Felce,  and 
others.  Where  the  forest  leaves  off  in  the  interior  stretch  endless  mea- 
dows, then  a  firm  arable  land,  and  we  see  distinctly  the  Appian  Way, 
renewed  by  Pius  VI,,  traversing  the  Maritima.  Near  it  is  Cisterna, 
the  largest  place  in  the  marshes,  close  to  which  the  Three  Taverns 
stood  formerly,  and  farther  on  is  For'  Appio,  the  ancient  Forum 
Appium. 

"No  century  has  been  able  t4  drain  the  Pontine  marshes.  JuHus  Caesar 
formed  a  plan  for  it,  but  he  died  before  putting  it  into  execution.  The 
Roman  Emperors,  so  extravagant  in  buildings  of  every  kind,  did  nothing 
for  it ;  and  it  is  therefore  strange  enough,  that  under  a  barbarian  king, 
inheritor  or  conqueror  of  Rome,  the  great  Theodoric,  the  ruined  Appian 
Way  was  first  restored,  and  a  part  of  the  marshes  as  far  as  Terracina 
drained.  The  original  record  of  this  noble  deed  of  a  Goth,  may  be  read 
at  the  present  day  inscribed  on  two  tablets  in  Terracina.  In  papal  times 
Sixtus  v.,  a  man  of  practical  Roman  spirit,  was  the  first  to  undertake 
again  the  draining  of  the  marshes,  and  more  than  two  centuries  later 
he  was  followed  by  Pius  VI.  This  pope  restored  the  Appian  Way,  dug 
the  great  canal  alongside,  had  other  canals  made,  changed  part  of  the 
marsh  into  arable  land,  and  thus  gained  a  lasting  credit  in  this  part  of  fhe 
Maritima. "  —  Gregorovius. 

A  man  in  scarlet  cap  and  with  long  curly  hair  guided  us 
through  the  high  beans  which  occupied  the  platform  of  the 
ancient  city,  to  the  "  Grotte  di  Norba."  It  is  a  ruin  of  later 
Roman  brickwork,  covering  the  entrance  to  long  caves  and 
cellars,  but  is  always  shown  to  strangers  as  the  place  where 
the  spirit  of  Junius  Brutus  is  held  imprisoned,  waiting  for  the 
final  judgment,  and  whence  his  howls  are  heard  at  night 
mingling  with  the  thunder-storms. 

Leaving  the  citadel,  and  descending  slightly  on  the  other 
side,  we  soon  reach  the  edge  of  the  precipice  towards  the 
marshes,  and  here,  through  a  jagged  rift  in  the  mountain-side, 
we  look  upon  Norma,  perched  like  an  eagle's  nest  upon  the 
top  of  tremendous  precipices  of  bare  rock. 

**  Immediately  beneath  us  is  a  ring  as  of  green  ivy  walls  encircling 
many  wonderful  mounds,  which  all  seem  formed  of  flowers  and  ivy. 


234 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


Grey  towers  rise  out  of  this,  ruins  all  overhung  with  green,  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  strange  circle  we  may  see  a  silver  spring  gushing  forth  and 
glowing  through  the  Pontine  marshes,  ending  in  a  sparkling  lake  far 
away  by  the  sea-shore.  We  ask  in  astonishment  what  this  curious  gar- 
landed circle  is  with  its  many  green  hillocks,  and  are  told  it  is  Ninfa 
Ninfa,  the  Pompeii  of  the  middle  ages." — Gregorovius. 


of  Norma. 


Instead  of  returning  the  same  way,  it  is  best  to  descend 
from  hence  to  the  valley,  clambering  down  throusfh  the 
broken  rock  and  sliding  shale,  clinging  to  the  myrtle  and 
Judas  bushes,  into  the  depths  where,  nestling  under  the  hill. 


NINFA. 


235 


is  Ninfa,  almost  as  entirely  a  ruin  as  Norba  itsdf.  It  is 
an  unspeakably  quiet  scene  of  sylvan  beauty,  and  there  is 
something  unearthly  about  it  which  possesses  and  absorbs 
every  sense.  If  fairies  exist  anywhere,  surely  Ninfa  is  their 
capital ;  Ninfa,  where  Flora  holds  her  court,  where  the  only 
inhabitants  are  the  roses  and  lilies,  and  all  the  thousand 
flowers  which  grow  so  abundantly  in  the  deserted  streets, 
where  honeysuckle  and  jessamine  fling  their  garlands  through 
the  windows  of  every  house,  and  where  the  very  altars  of 
the  churches  are  thrones  for  the  flame-coloured  valerian. 
Outside  the  walls  you  would  scarcely  believe  it  was  a  town,  so 
encrusted  in  verdure  is  every  building,  that  the  houses  look 
like  green  mounds  rising  out  of  the  plain.  It  is  as  if  Nature 
had  built  the  city  for  a  perpetual  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  One 
tall  tower  stands  near  the  entrance  and  watches  its  reflection 


Ninfa. 


in  the   still  waters  of  a  pool  white  with  lilies  and  fringed 
with  forget-me-not.       By  the  road-side  a  crystal  spring  rises 


236  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

in  great  abundance  in  a  little  basin  of  ancient  brickwork,  and 
falls  into  the  pool,  where  it  turns  a  mill,  and  a  little  farther 
on  becomes  a  lake,  on  which  Pliny  mentions  the  floating 
islands  in  his  time,  which  were  called  Saltuares,  because  they 
were  said  to  move  to  the  time  of  dancing  feet.  An  inscrip- 
tion on  the  mill  tells  that  it  was  built  by  one  of  the  Gaetani, 
lord  of  the  place,  in  1765.  The  town  must  have  been 
inhabited  then,  yet  none  can  tell  now  the  story  of  its  deser- 
tion. It  has  belonged  to  the  Gaetani  since  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  Pope  Alexander  III.  was  consecrated  here, 
September  20,  11 59.  From  the  tower,  say  the  natives  of 
Norma,  "  la  bella  Ninfa,"  who  was  disobedient  to  her  parents, 
flung  herself -into  the  pool  to  evade  becoming  the  sposina 
of  the  unsympathetic  partito  they  had  chosen  for  her,  and 
ever  since  the  name  of  the  little  city  has  kept  her  memory 
alive.  Let  it  be  so,  though  etymologists  suggest  the  little 
river  Nymphaeus  as  a  godfather.  The  water-nymphs  will 
avenge  all  insults  by  the  fever-bearing  vapours  of  their  lake. 
Ninfa  can  never  be  rebuilt.  Even  the  shepherds  cannot 
dare  to  pass  the  night  there.  Death,  garlanded  with  flowers, 
is  death  still.  Gregory  I.,  who  built  a  church  here  in  1216, 
to  *'  St.  Mary  of  the  Myrtle-branch,  "  dedicated  it  in  vain.  No 
sound  will  ever  be  heard  but  the  hum  of  the  myriad  insects 
which  float  amongst  the  flower-possessed  streets  and  houses, 
the  croaking  of  the  green  frogs  in  the  surrounding  waters, 
and  the  everlasting  sighing  and  rustling  of  the  wind  in  the 
tall  bulrushes. 

"  Here  is  Ninfa,  the  fairy-like  ruin  of  a  town,  with  its  walls,  towers, 
churches,  convents,  and  dwellings  half  sunk  in  the  marsh,  and  buried 
under  thickest  ivy.  Truly  this  place  looks  even  more  charming  than 
Pompeii,  for  there  the  houses  stare  like  crumbling  mummies,  dragged 
from  the  volcanic  ashes.     But  over  Ninfa  waves  a  balmy  sea  of  flowers  ; 


THE  CITY  OF  FLOWERS.  237 

every  building,  every  wall,  every  church,  every  house  is  veiled  with  ivy, 
and  on  all  the  ruins  wave  the  purple  banners  of  the  triumphant  god  of 
spring. 

**It  causes  an  indescribable  impression  to  enter  this  ivy  town,  to 
wander  down  the  grassy,  flowery  streets,  between  the  walls  where  the 
wind  plays  in  the  leaves,  and  no  voice  is  heard,  but  the  cry  of  the  raven 
in  the  tower,  the  splash  of  the  foaming  stream  Nymphaius,  the  rustling 
of  the  tall  reeds  by  the  pond,  and  the  melodious  singing  and  sighing  of 
the  blades  of  grass  all  around. 

"  All  the  streets  are  filled  with  flowers,  which  seem  to  march  in  pro- 
cession to  the  ruined  churches.  They  climb  on  every  tower,  they  lie 
laughing  and  smiling  in  all  the  desolate  windows,  they  barricade  every 
door,  for  within  the  houses  reside  elves,  fairies,  water-nymphs,  and  a 
thousand  charming  spirits  of  the  fable  world.  Yellow  marigolds, 
mallows,  sweet  narcissus  ;  grey-bearded  thistles  who  once  dwelt  here 
as  monks ;  white  lilies,  who  were  nuns  in  their  lifetime  ;  wild  roses, 
laurestinus,  masticks,  tall  ferns,  wreaths  of  clematis  and  bramble ;  the 
red  fox-gloves,  which  look  like  enchanted  Saracens  ;  the  fantastic  caper- 
plant  growing  in  the  clefts  of  the  buildings,  the  sweet  wall-flower,  the 
myrtle,  and  the  fragrant  mint ;  brilliant  yellow  broom,  and  dark  ivy  which 
creeps  over  all  the  ruins,  and  falls  over  the  walls  like  green  cascades,  — 
yes,  one  may  fling  oneself  into  this  sea  of  flowers,  quite  intoxicated  by  the 
perfume,  and  the  most  charming  fairy  power  enchains  the  soul. 

"  The  walls  of  the  town  are  still  standing  and  encircle  it  like  a  great 
ring,  but  they  are  everywhere  covered  thickly  with  ivy,  and  only  here 
and  there  peeps  out  a  crumbling  pinnacle  on  a  square  ruined  tower. 
The  gates  of  the  town  are  no  less  barred  and  barricaded  by  the  wild 
vine,  the  ivy,  and  the  bramble,  as  if  the  flowers  in  Ninfa  feared  some 
enemy  who  wanted  to  break  in  upon  them,  as  formerly  the  Saracen,  or 
the  soldiers  of  Barbarossa,  or  of  the  Duke  of  Alba,  and  the  Colonna. 
They  have  entrenched  themselves  behind  these  ivy  walls  ;  perhaps  it 
may  be  the  swarms  of  meteors,  or  will-o'-the-wisps  from  the  Pontine 
marshes,  who  by  night  besiege  or  storm  this  enchanted  town  to  carry  off 
the  flower  spirits  into  the  marshes. 

"Many  squares  and  many  streets  are  still  standing,  with  their  ruined 
houses  covered  with  an  ivy  web,  many  palaces  of  a  half-gothic  archi- 
tecture, once  the  dwellings  of  rich  nobles.  The  churches,  the  ruins  of 
four  or  five  of  which  remain,  look  very  strange.  I  never  saw  such  fan- 
tastic ruins  ;  but  how  can  one  describe  them  in  words  ?  How  shall  I 
lepict  such  a  brown  shattered  bell  tower,  with  round  windows,  or  win- 
iows  divided  by  small  pillars,  with  its  frieze  of  the  middle  ages 
K)rmed  of  sharp-pointed  tiles,  and  with  its  romantic  decorations  of  ivy 


238  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

and  flowers  waving  in  the  wind  ?  or  how  shall  I  picture  the  ruins  of 
the  arched  niches,  or  the  nave  of  the  church,  all  overhung  with  tapestries 
of  flowers  ? 

**  These  churches  are  old,  they  belong  to  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  cen- 
tury if  they  are  not  of  a  still  earlier  date,  for  they  are  built  in  the  simple 
basilica  style.  In  their  deserted  space  the  flowers  worship  now,  and  the 
censers  are  swung  by  the  bacchanalian  roses.  From  the  walls,  or  per- 
haps from  an  ivy-hung  tribune,  some  old  fresco  paintings  still  look  down. 
They  represent  early  Christians  with  palms  in  their  hands,  and  instruments 
of  martyrdom  by  their  side.  With  faded  nimbi  on  their  pale  foreheads, 
in  golden  dalmatica,  with  stole  upon  their  shoulders,  they  look  down 
morosely  from  behind  their  veils  of  flowers,  and  seem  shocked  by  the 
heathen  rites  which  the  children  of  Flora  are  daring  to  celebrate  in  these 
deserted  churches. 

"The  beetle  hums  continually  his  romance  of  summer,  and  the  cricket 
chirps  incessantly  her  Anacreontic  love-songs.  The  flowers  and  beetles 
yield  up  these  temples  no  more.  A  complaint  was  once  brought  to  S. 
Bernard  that  countless  swarms  of  flies  had  taken  possession  of  a  church 
which  was  just  about  to  be  consecrated,  and  would  not  leave  it  :  '  I  ex- 
communicate them, '  said  he  ;  and  behold,  when  the  messengers  returned 
to  the  church  all  the  flies  lay  dead.  But  a  saintly  exorcist  would  hardly 
succeed  in  excommunicating  the  flowers  from  the  churches  of  Ninfa,  and 
though  the  painted  martyrs  look  angry,  the  ivy  is  already  creeping  up 
and  will  soon  have  entirely  veiled  and  walled  them  in.  Of  many  there 
is  now  nothing  more  visible  than  the  hem  of  a  robe,  and  the  name  in  old 
Roman  characters  : — S.  Xystus  or  S.  Cesarius  and  S.  Laurentius.  I 
went  into  the  last  of  these  churches — what  a  sight  !  The  original  mosaic 
of  the  pavement  with  its  arabesques  and  circles  or  squares  seemed  now 
to  be  imitated  by  living  flowers,  and  from  the  shrine  where  the  bones 
of  the  saint  once  lay  the  Indian  vine  waves  joyously  with  its  bluish 
red  berries. 

"  Here  also  the  counterpart  of  Pompeii  is  not  wanting.  As  there  the 
classic  age  expresses  itself  decidedly  in -the  bright  frescoes,  so  in  Ninfa 
the  Christian  epoch  of  humanity  speaks  fiom  the  paintings  on  the  walls 
of  the  ruins.  There  they  are  the  attractive  forms  of  life  and  pleasure : 
Cupids  fishing  in  the  pool,  dancing  satyrs,  crickets  driving  a  little 
chariot,  hovering  Bacchantes  clashing  cymbals,  or  holding  in  their  hands 
a  mysterious  casket,  or  bearing  juicy  figs  upon  a  dish,  but  in  the  Pom- 
peii of  the  middle  ages  the  frescoes  only  represent  death  and  woe. 
Instead  of  those  cheerful  pictures,  we  find  here  the  melancholy  figures  of 
the  catacombs,  the  mythic  gods  of  suffering  and  martyrdom,  in  the  flames, 


NINFA  AND  THE  NYMPH^US.  239 

on  the  cross,  or  kneeling  with  folded  hands  before  the  executioner  who 
stands  with  uplifted  sword. 

"Is  it  not  time  that  all  these  martyrs,  saints,  and  decaying  crucifixes 
were  buried  in  flowers  ?  Here  Nature  strews  them  plentifully  on  the 
graves  of  the  unfortunate  penitents  and  monks,  and  of  all  those  who  in 
the  time  of  dark  superstition  scourged  and  tortured  themselves — would 
that  catholic  humanity  might  imitate  her,  and  give  to  the  dead  peace 
and  a  grave  of  flowers  ! 

"  At  the  entrance  to  Ninfa  still  stands  the  castle,  once  the  seat  of  the 
barons  in  whose  dungeons  the  victims  of  feudalism  languished.  High 
rises  the  square  tower,  built  as  strovigly  of  bricks  as  the  Torre  delle 
Milizie  in  Rome,  and  it  seems  to  belong  to  the  same  period.  It  stands 
close  to  a  pool,  which  lies  here  like  a  Stygian  marsh  at  the  entrance  to 
the  city  of  the  dead.  Tall  reeds  surround  it.  It  is  a  mythic  spot,  as  if 
from  the  shadow- world  of  Eneas  or  Ulysses.  The  gloomy  tower  and 
other  ruins  fling  their  trembling  reflection  across  the  still  water  of  the 
marsh.  The  reeds  rustle  sadly.  Sometimes  the  sobbing  voice  of  a 
water-hen  is  heard,  like  the  souls  of  the  departed,  who  dwell  in  this 
Hades  and  yearn  after  the  upper  existence.  I  sit  on  ruins  and  look  into 
this  green  spirit  world,  then  up  to  the  blue  entrancing  mountains,  on 
which  stand  the  cyclopean  stones  of  Norba  and  its  citadel,  then  over  the 
Pontine  marshes  to  the  sea  in  the  sunshine  of  evening,  whence  rises  the 
glittering  Circean  mount.  Can  the  enchantress  Circe  have  left  her  castle 
there  ?  Does  she  now  dwell  in  Ninfa  ?  Has  she  become  the  ivy -queen  ? 
There  is  so  much  ivy  here,  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  this  Ninfa  must  be  the 
ivy  store-house  of  Italy,  and  as  if  the  ivy  spirits  of  history  supplied  all 
the  ruins  of  this  noble  country  with  creepers  from  this  place. 

"  One  must  sit  here  when  the  evening  floods  every  ruin  of  these  ivy 
halls  first  with  purple,  and  then  with  gold,  and  steeps  mountains,  and 
sea,  and  the  Cape  of  Circe  in  unspeakable  richness  of  colour — but  I  will 
not  speak  of  it,  or  describe  how  this  fairy  land  appears,  so  soon  as  the 
moon  shines  on  it. 

"  Out  of  the  pool  rushes  the  spring  Nymphaeus.  It  appears  to  take  its 
rise  here,  and  suddenly  brings  a  startling  contrast  of  young,  noisy  life 
into  this  green  grave-world.  For  with  the  stormy  force  of  a  mountain 
torrent  it  dashes  past  the  ruins,  as  if  urged  on  by  demons,  as  if  winged, 
as  if  trying  to  escape  from  the  deathly  grasp  of  the  ivy,  and  it  looks  like 
a  living  creature,  as,  sparkling  and  foaming,  it  flees  across  the  Pontine 
marsh  towards  the  sea. 

**  Near  the  pool  it  turns  a  mill,  which  has  been  erected  in  a  building 
of  the  middle  ages,  for  part  of  this  house  keeps  still  its  pillared  gothic- 


240  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

roman  windows.  They  say  that  there  stood  in  olden  times,  by  the  spring 
and  the  lake,  a  temple  of  the  Nymphs,  from  which  the  town  took  its 
name,  and  on  the  site  of  that  Nymphaeum  the  church  of  St.  Michael  was 
built.  In  the  year  1216  Ugolino  Conti  founded  here  the  church  of  S. 
Maria  del  Mirteto — of  the  myrtle- grove. 

"But  the  history  of  Ninfa  is  all  very  obscure.  In  the  12th  century 
the  Frangipani  possessed  this  town.  At  the  end  of  the  13th  century  the 
race  of  Gaetani  got  possession  of  Ninfa,  and  the  descendants  of  that 
famous  house  retain  it  to  this  day.  The  archives  of  the  family  in  Rome 
preserve  many  records  which  show  how  Pietro  Gaetani,  nephew  of 
Boniface  VIII.,  Lateran  Count  Palatine  and  Count  of  Caserta,  gradually 
bought  up  the  houses  and  possessions  of  Ninfa.  I  found  there  no  deeds 
of  the  15th  century.  But  an  old  record  of  22  Feb.,  1 349,  is  inscribed  on 
the  now  ruined  baronial  castle.  It  runs  thus  :  Actum  Nimphe  in  scalis 
palatii  Rocce  Nimphe  presente  Nicolao  Cillone  Vicario  Sculcule." — 
Gregorovius. 

Evening  closed  in  upon  us  at  Ninfa;  the  low  houses 
turned  purple  against  the  sunset,  and  the  lake  became  like 
molten  gold.  We  hurried  away  from  the  fever.  It  was  too 
late  to  ascend  the  mountain  way  again  with  its  unguarded  pre- 
cipices, but  another  path  led  us  along  the  foot  of  the  hills 
through  the  low-lying  moorlands — parched  and  ugly  at  mid- 
day, but  beautiful  in  the  soft  twilight,  when  each  arum  and 
thistle,  thickly  diamonded  with  dew,  sparkled  and  glittered 
in  the  last  gleams,  and  the  figures  of  our  party  on  their 
mules  stood  out  dark  against  the  soft  after-glow.  And  then, 
as  the  bells  of  Cori  were  ringing  the  last  strokes  of  the  Ave 
Maria,  which  serves  as  the  summons  for  the  peasants  of  the 
Campagna  to  save  themselves  from  the  malaria  in  their  high 
mountain  homes,  we  wound  up  to  the  town  through  the 
ancient  olive-groves,  the  most  solemn  thing  in  nature,  and 
looked  down  through  the  gnarled  stems  over  the  vast 
marshes  to  the  great  Circean  promontory  engraven  in  black 
upon  a  flaming  sky. 

From  Cori  a  mountain  road,  which  is  described  as  most 


ASCENT  TO  SEGNL  241 

■beautiful,  leads  through  the  Volscian  forests  to  Segni.  We 
took  the  railway  thither  from  Ferentino.  The  station  is  at 
the  bottom  of  the  mountain  called  Monte  Lepini,  while  the 
town  is  at  the  top,  and  we  had  the  discomfort  of  finding 
that  no  omnibus  met  the  train  from  the  south,  and 
having  to  wait  until  the  great  heat  of  the  April  day  was  over 
before  we  could  walk  up.  However,  we  employed  the  time 
in  sketching  two  fine  old  castles  near  the  railway,  one  of 
them,  Colleferro,  now  turned  into  farm-buildings,  being 
especially  picturesque,  its  front  formed  by  deeply  recessed 
arches.  The  ascent  to  Segni  is  most  wild  and  rugged,  and 
the  road  wound  along  the  mountain  edge  without  any  para- 
pet beyond  a  fringe  of  Judas  bushes  just  bursting  into  bloom 
to  be  ready  for  the  Good  Friday  close  at  hand,  and  with 
tremendous  precipices  below,  rather  alarming  in  a  carriage. 
Segni  was  the  ancient  Signia,  colonized  by  Tarquinius  Su- 
perbus  as  a  restraint  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  Volscian 
and  Hernican  hills,  and  it  is  said  that  the  name  is  derived 
from  the  number  of  standards  which  he  saw  raised  by  the 
inhabitants  in  his  behalf  against  the  people  of  Gabii.  The 
town  is  mentioned  in  the  "  Captives  "  of  Plautus,  where  the 
parasite  and  epicure  Ergasilus  swears  in  turn  by  Cora, 
Praeneste,  Signia,  Phrysinone,  and  Alatrium,  and  explains, 
when  asked  by  his  host  Hegio  why  he  swears  by  foreign 
cities,  that  they  are  just  as  disagreeable  as  the  dinner  he 
is  about  to  receive  from  him,  Strabo  and  Pliny  mention 
the  peculiar  wine  of  Signia,  as  well  as  several  of  the 
poets  : 

"  Quos  Cora,  quos  spumans  immiti  Signia  musto, 
Et  quos  pestifera  Pomptini  uligine  campi." 

Sil.  ItcU.  viii.  380. 
VOL.  I.  16 


242  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

'*  Potabis  liquidum  Signina  morantia  ventrem  ; 
Ne  nimium  sistant,  sit  tua  parca  sitis." 

Martial,  xiii.  Ep.  lo6.. 

In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  when  the  popes 
sought  safety  in  the  strongest  towns  of  the  Campagna, 
Segni  was  frequently  their  residence.  Eugenius  III.  fled 
hither  from  the  Roman  Senate,  and  built  a  papal  palace,  in 
1 145;  and  here  Alexander  III.,  Lucius  III.,  and  Innocent 
III.  passed  a  considerable  portion  of  their  reigns  in  se- 
curity. Segni  was  long  a  fief  of  the  great  family  of  Conti, 
to  which  so  many  of  the  popes  belonged,  and  it  disputes 
with  Anagni  the  honour  of  having  been  the  birthplace  of 
Innocent  III.  In  1353  the  head  of  the  house  of  Conti  was 
Podesta,  and  afterwards  Vicar  in  the  name  of  the  Pope. 
After  the  Conti  had  died  out,  and  Segni  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Mario  Sforza,  Sixtus  V.  created  it  a  Duchy.  On 
the  13th  of  August,  1557,  the  place  was  taken  and  almost 
totally  destroyed  by  the  Duke  of  Alba,  and  it  is  owing  to 
this  that  so  few  gothic  buildings  remain.  The  town  was  re- 
built, and  was  given  as  a  duchy  by  Urban  VIII.  to  his 
nephew,  Cardinal  Antonio  Barberini.  A  long  lawsuit  which 
followed  between  the  Barberini  and  the  Sforza,  the  former 
lords  of  Segni,  was  only  decided  at  the  end  of  the  last  cen- 
tury in  honour  of  the  SfOrza-Cesarini,  who  are  still  Dukes 
of  Segni. 

The  town  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  steep  rocks, 
except  where  d^  passeggiata  bordered  by  trees,  with  splendid 
views  of  valley  and  mountains,  leads  to  the  one  gate, 
the  Porta  Maggiore.  This  gate  rests  against  the  Cyclopean 
walls,  and  over  it  are  the  remains  of  the  baronial  castle  of 
the  Conti,  in  which,  as  in  many  other  buildings  here,  the 


WALLS  OF  SEGNT* 


243 


curious  style  of  construction  may  be  observed,  which  is 
frequently  spoken  of  in  old  documents  about  other  places  as 
"  Signino  opere,"  and  which  consists  of  alternate  layers  of 
bricks  and  the  dark  lime-stone  of  the  country. 

All  those  who  visit  Segni  should  turn  at  once  to  the  right 
after  entering  the  gate  (there  is  a  poor  inn  where  a  tolerable 
meal  may  be  obtained),  and  make  the  circuit  of  the  Pelasgic 
walls  which  give  the  place  its  chief  interest.  They  are 
formed  by  masses  of  rock  jammed  into  one  another,  and 
though  of  no  great  height,  almost  surround  the  existing 
town,  and  are  among  the  most  extensive  in  Italy.  In  some 
places  they  are  most  picturesque,  especially  where  a  tall 
cross  crowns  the  huge  pile  of  stones,  and  stands  out  against 
the  vast  expanse  of  distance,  for  you  look  across  the  great 


From  the  Walls  of  Segni. 

(       depths  to  billow  upon  billow  of  purple  Hernican  hills,  and 


244  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

beyond  these  upon  all  the  ranges  of  the  Abruzzi,  still,  In 
April,  covered  with  snow.  The  church  of  S.  Pietro,  built 
quite  at  the  end  of  the  fortifications,  is  another  striking 
point. 

•*  When  I  reached  this  spot  where  the  cyclopean  citadel  of  the  Vol- 
scians  stood  in  hoary  antiquity  on  the  lofty  heights,  the  magnificence  of 
the  situation  took  me  by  surprise  ;  it  reminded  me  of  the  Acropolis  of 
some  Sicilian  mountain  town.  Here,  on  a  height  overlooking  all  Latium, 
stood  the  citadel  and  temple  of  ancient  Signia,  of  which  but  few 
vestiges  remain,  among  them  a  large  circular  cistern  near  the  Seminary. 
The  townspeople  have  here  one  of  their  favourite  promenades ;  they 
walk  about  there  on  the  cyclopean  walls  of  the  highest  plateaux  of  the  ' 
mountain,  as  if  round  a  great  stone  table,  among  the  grey  blocks  of 
stone  overgrown  with  moss  and  wild  flowers.  One  can  imagine  nothing 
more  original  than  this  promenade  in  the  cloud-region,  amid  this  grand 
rock  scenery.  Among  the  promenaders  I  saw,  as  it  was  a  Sunday,  many 
a  gaily  decked  young  lady  in  silk  attire  parading  up  and  down,  while, 
immediately  below,  the  mountain  fell  sheer  away  in  a  precipice,  and 
Latium  lay  extended  below.  The  eye  reaches  over  a  wide-spread  picture 
of  provinces  with  their  innumerable  mountains  and  cities,  each  of 
which  is  full  of  its  own  historical  or  mythical  memories.  For  the  pano- 
rama extends  from  Rome,  visible  in  the  plain,  to  Arpino,  Cicero's 
paternal  city,  which  stands  out  among  the  far  blue  mountains  of  the 
Neapolitan  kingdom. 

"  The  air  up  here  is  fresh,  almost  sharp.  The  brown  grasses  on  the 
masses  of  rock,  the  wild  roses,  and  the  golden  broom  wave  to  and  fro  ia 
it.  The  very  spirit  of  antiquity  and  of  the  primaeval  wilderness,  of  a 
great,  mighty,  pre-historic  age,  seems  to  brood  on  these  storm-worn 
cyclopean  stones. 

"  I  scrambled  further  over  the  rocks,  to  reach  the  famous  cyclopean 
walls.  As  in  all  the  Latin  cities,  their  long  lines  girdle  the  actual  Arx 
or  citadel,  and  sink  away  sheer  down  the  precipice.  The  arrangement 
of  their  unhewn  stones  is  as  perfectly  preserved  as  if  the  builder  had 
been  at  work  but  yesterday  :  here  and  there  they  are  pierced  by  a  small 
door  of  Etruscan  appearance.  At  the  end  of  one  great  line  of  wall  there 
still  stands  the  great  cyclopean  gate,  in  use  at  the  present  day.  It  is 
built  of  massive,  almost  square  blocks,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  two 
side  walls  lean  towards  each  other  till  the  angle  is  cut  off  by  the  stone 
which  forms  the  lintel. 

"The  hugeness  of  these  grey  walls,  weather-stained  by  thousands  of 


CATHEDRAL  OF  SEGNl.  245 

years,  the  wild  growth  of  plants  clinging  to  them,  the  mighty  strength  oi 
the  mountain  on  which  the  giant  fabric  rests,  and  the  grandeur  of  nature 
which  surrounds  it,  all  combine  to  bring  the  mind  into  a  state  of  feeling 
impossible  to  describe. 

"  When  I  had  passed  through  that  gate,  the  rocky  path  led  me  deep 
down  the  other  side  of  the  wall  of  mountain,  so  that  the  view  of  Latium 
was  lost.  Below  I  found  another  and  far  larger  circular  cistern  hewn  in 
the  rock,  of  at  least  30  feet  in  diameter.  In  its  broad  rocky  margin  many 
basins  are  scooped  out,  in  which  the  women  of  Segni  still  do  their  wash- 
ing. In  all  the  Volscian  towns  I  have  found  such  ancient  and  perfectly 
preserved  cisterns  :  they  seem  to  be  peculiar  to  that  neighbourhood,  as 
I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  met  with  them  elsewhere  in  Latium  of 
this  size  and  shape." — Gregorovius. 

The  streets  of  Segni  have  little  interest.  In  its  piazza  is 
the  modernized  Cathedral,  having  few  memorials  of  a 
bishopric  which  dates  from  499.  It  contains  however  two 
remarkable  statues — one  is  that  of  St.  Vitalian,  a  native  of 
Segni,  Pope  from  657  to  672,  the  feeble  though  canonized 
pontiff  who  received  the  Emperor  Constans  11.  at  Eome, 
and  allowed  him  to  carry  off  to  Constantinople  so  many  of 
its  treasures,  including  the  bronze  roof  of  the  Pantheon. 
Nevertheless  he  deserves  honour  for  having  been  in  some 
respects,  with  Wilfrid,  the  apostle  of  England,  and,  having 
been  the  Pope  who  sent  the  Greek  Archbishop  Theodore 
to  Canterbury.  The  statue  was  placed  here  in  1721,  and 
taken  from  the  image  on  his  coins.     Its  inscription  ends  : 

**  Signia  gave  me  to  Rome  :  Rome  gave  me  the  tiara. 
Signia  divides  with  Rome  the  honours  of  my  rule." 

**  The  other  statue,  also  of  indifferent  execution,  stands  opposite  that 
of  St.  Vitalian.  Bruno,  a  native  of  Asti,  in  Piedmont,  came  to  Rome, 
recommended  to  Gregory  VII.,  and  was  afterwards  made  Bishop  of 
Segni  by  Urban  II.  In  defiance  of  the  Canon,  he  abandoned  his  epis- 
copal seat  and  went  to  Monte  Cassino,  where  the  Abbot  Oderisius 
received  him  among  the  Benedictines.  Although  Pascal  II.  ordered  the 
truant  to  return  to  his  diocese,  he  remained  at  Monte  Cassino,  was 


246  jDA  VS  near  ROME. 

there  chosen  Abbot,  and  in  the  leisure  of  the  cloister  composed  his 
exegetical  writings. 

"  Not  long  after,  Bruno  played  a  part  at  Rome.  It  is  well  known  that 
in  the  sequel  of  the  strife  about  investiture,  Pope  Pascal  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Emperor  Henry  V.,  and  compelled  to  issue  a  Bull  by 
which  he  yielded  to  the  Emperor  the  contested  right  of  spiritual  investi- 
ture. After  his  release,  when  Henry  had  returned  to  Germany,  Cardi- 
nals and  Bishops  beset  Pascal  with  entreaties  to  revoke  the  Bull  thus 
wrung  from  him,  and  to  break  his  oath ;  among  these  fanatics  the  most 
zealous  was  Bruno.  His  vehemence  angered  Pascal,  who  thereupon 
forbade  him  to  be  at  the  same  time  Bishop  and  Abbot.  So  Bruno  laid 
down  his  office  at  Monte  Cassino,  and  returned  to  Segni,  where  he  died 
in  1 123.     He  was  canonized  in  1183. 

'*It  was  Lord  Ellis,  also  both  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino  and  Bishop  of 
Segni,  who  raised  this  monument  to  his  predecessor.  But  the  Church 
of  Segni  has  another  and  more  remarkable  connection  with  distant 
England  ;  for  it  was  in  a  synod  of  bishops  of  the  Campagna  held  here 
in  ii73>  that  Thomas  a  Becket  was  canonized  shortly  after  his  murder. 
This  is  recorded  by  an  inscription  in  the  Cathedral. 

"Lord  Ellis  became  Bishop  of  Segni  in  1708.  He  restored  the 
Cathedral,  and  bequeathed  to  the  town  a  seminary,  its  best  memorial  of 
him.  Pupils  come  to  it  from  all  parts  of  Latium  ;  they  wear  a  priestly 
garb,  although  not  necessarily  intended  for  Holy  Orders.  The  seminary 
stands  near  the  Church  of  St.  Yvttxo.''^  —  Gregoravius. 

Nothing  can  be  more  kind  than  the  reception  which  the 
inhabitants  of  Segni  give  to  strangers.  The  women  here 
wear  a  difterent  costume  to  those  in  the  towns  on  the  other 
side  of  the  valley.  They  have  nopa?mi,  but  a  large  silver 
bodkin  fastens  up  their  hair,  and  their  bodices,  usually 
green,  are  laced  behind  instead  of  in  front.  Almost  all  the 
natives  are  proprietors  in  the  country  on  a  very  small  scale, 
and  though  little  can  be  grown  in  these  lofty  uplands,  the 
vineyards,  oliveyards,  and  fruit-gardens  are  very  productive. 
The  most  excellent  cherries  and  peaches  abound ;  and  the 
woods  supply  chestnuts  for  a  coarse  bread  which  is  con- 
sidered very  nourishing,  and  abundant  acorns  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  black  pigs  which  are  fed  here  in  vast  numbers. 


EVENING  AT  SEGNI. 


247 


It  is  most  amusing  to  see  the  return  of  the  country-people 
at  sunset  when  they  return  home  from  their  fields,  thousands 


•SJi 


The  Inhabitants  of  Segni  returning  from  the  Country. 

at  a  time,  streaming  along  the  terrace  in  front  of  the  gateway, 
and  up  the  steep  streets  into  the  upper  town,  each  accom- 
panied by  his  domestic  animals — his  donkeys,  his  goats,  or 
his  pet  pigs,  which  come  frisking  behind  their  masters  in  the 
most  diverting  manner,  for  all  share  their  homes  with  them. 
Then  the  whole  street  is  blocked  up  for  a  time,  and  the 
cries,  the  shouts,  the  braying,  the  barking,  and,  above  all, 
the  squeaking  and  grunting,  baffle  all  description. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


THE  HERNICAN  HILLS— FERENTINO,  ALATRI, 
AND  ANAGNL 

HIS  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting excursions  near  Rome, 
and  is  perhaps  the  one  which 
is  least  known,  though  it  is  now 
rendered  very  easy  by  the  rail- 
way. To  accomplish  it,  one 
must  leave  Rome  by  the  first 
train  at  eight  a.m.,  and  it  must 
be  remembered,  that  that  train 
alone  is  met  by  the  omnibus 
from  Segni,  Anagni,  Ferentino, 
and  other  places  on  the  route. 
At  Ferentino.  t)ut  distant  sevcral  miles  from  the 

railway ;  and  that  if  any  other  train  is  chosen,  the  traveller 
will  find  himself  deposited  at  a  small  country  station  in  a 
desolate  district,  without  any  further  means  of  progress. 
For  the  same  reason  it  will  be  best  to  visit  the  nearest  places 
first,  taking  up  the  same  train  at  the  different  stations.  Any 
one  who  is  delicate  about  food,  had  better  take  it  with  them 
from  Rome,  or  at  any  rate  some  tea  and  coffee.  Meat  can 
scarcely  ever  be  obtained  in  the  mountain  towns,  but  eggs, 


EARLY  MORNING  IN  THE  CAMPAGNA.  249 

goats*  milk,  and  excellent  coarse  bread  are  always  to  be 
found  there,  and  often  macaroni  also,  with  the  thin  sour 
wine  of  the  hill  districts.  The  inns  are  mere  taverns,  often 
approached  by  filthy  alleys,  but  the  people  are  always  civil, 
the  linen  clean,  and  the  beds  sufficiently  comfortable  to  be 
appreciated  by  a  tired  traveller,  whose  appetite,  strengthened 
by  the  fresh  mountain  air,  will  also  be  quite  ready  for  the 
humble  fare  of  the  place.  The  charges  are  those  of  an  Italy 
unspoilt  by  English  and  Americans ;  one  franc  for  bed,  two 
francs  for  dinner,  and  forty  centimes  for  breakfast,  are  not 
unusual  prices.  It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  bargain,  and  will 
only  create  surprise  and  discomfort. 

Those  who  have  not  been  accustomed  to  it  in  Rome,  will 
learn  on  this  excursion  how  much  beauty  and  pleasure  are 
lost  by  want  of  early  rising.  The  most  delicate  hues  and 
shadows  do  not  last  for  many  hours  after  sunrise.  When  we 
have  emerged  from  the  unfinished  station,  and  traversed  the 
vineyards  and  kitchen-gardens  within  the  walls  of  Rome,  we 
are  astonished  by  the  colouring  of  the  pale  pink  precipices 
in  the  familiar  range  of  the  Sabina,  as  they  melt  into  a  silver 
haze.  Here  and  there  a  projecting  cliff  can  be  distinguished, 
in  the  rest  all  form  is  lost  in  colour;  Monticelli  and  S. 
Angelo  glitter  on  their  hill-tops,  and  the  long  flat  lines  of 
the  Campagna  are  tinged  with  peacock  hues,  as  the  blue 
cloud-shadows  flit  across  them.  In  the  foreground  the  rank 
vegetation  of  thistles,  marigolds,  and  lupins,  grows  together 
so  vigorously,  that  you  seem  to  see  them  sucking  their  strong 
life  out  of  the  rich  brown  earth.  On  the  other  side,  we  have 
first  the  striding  aqueducts,  tinged  on  their  inner  edge  by  the 
dazzling  sunlight,  and  then  the  long  line  of  ruined  tombs, 
which   traces   out   the  Appian  Way  against  the   low-lying 


250  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

horizon.  Soon  the  train  rushes  across  the  sepulchral  road  of 
so  many  memories,  and  over  the  stones  which  we  know  were 
once  trodden  by  the  sandalled  feet  of  St.  Paul, — and  so  into 
the  upland,  to  olive-gardens,  whose  silvery  stems  glisten 
against  the  brilliant  green  of  the  young  corn,  to  dark  cypress 
groves  and  pine-trees  on  the  edge  of  terraced  villas,  and  to 
fields  divided  by  hedges  of  the  graceful  Spina  Christi,  the 
hallowed  plant,  said  to  have  been  brought  to  Italy  by  the 
returning  crusaders,  and  to  have  come  from  the  seed  of  the 
tree  on  Calvary,  whence  the  sacred  crown  was  woven.  Thus 
we  wind  round  the  base  of  the  green  slopes  encircling  Monte 
Cavo,  from  which  Castel  Gandolfo  looks  down  upon  the 
Alban  lake,  and  reach  the  station  of  Albano.  Beyond  this, 
upon  the  right,  we  overlook  a  plain  historical  with  the  sites 
of  Pratica,  Ardea,  Antium,  and  Astura,  to  a  wide  expanse  of 
blue  sea.  On  the  left  Civita  Lavinia  rises  with  its  tower  on 
a  fortified  height;  then  Velletri  with  its  orange  roofs  and 
wooded  hills  riven  into  gulfs  of  verdure ;  and  then  we  enter 
a  wilder  and  less  wooded  country,  the  valley  of  the  Sacco — 
a  plain  alternately  narrow  and  wide ;  a  very  definite  plain 
indeed,  closed  in  by  the  Hemican  hills  on  one  side,  and  the 
Volscian  mountains  on  the  other,  which  rise  abruptly  out  of 
it  with  rocky  buttresses. 

An  omnibus  met  us  at  the  Fe  entino  station,  and  took  us 
the  three  miles  up  into  the  town,  through  a  country  where 
the  most  remarkable  feature  was  the  faggots,  stacked  high  up 
in  the  maple-trees,  pollarded  for  the  purpose. 

We  found  tolerable  rooms  at  the  little  inn,  and  almost 
immediately  set  off  in  the  omnibus  again  for  Alatri.  It  is 
a  long  drive  (much  longer  than  Murray  describes)  of  about 
two  hours  ;  you  skirt  the  base  of  the  Hernican  mountains, 
and  cross  many  runnmg  streams  : 


ALATRL  251 

"  Roscida  rivis 
Hemica  Saxacolunt." 

^n.  vii.  683. 

You  are  beginning  to  wonder  where  Alatri  can  be,  when 
you  see  its  huge  Cyclopean  walls  rising  against  the  sky  at 
the  end  of  a  valley  upon  the  left,  and  forming  a  terrace  fit 
for  Titans  to  walk  upon,  an  architectural  Stonehenge.  The 
modem  road  winds  into  the  town  by  a  gradual  ascent.  The 
ancient  approach  is  the  earliest  instance  of  a  cordonnata,  a 
hill-side  broken  by  steps,  such  as  the  approach  to  the  Roman 
Capitol.  The  streets  are  full  of  mediaeval  houses,  with 
gothic  windows  and  loggias ;  and  the  two  ancient  churches 
have  each  a  fine  rose-window  in  the  west  front.  But  tower- 
ing high  above  the  buildings  of  all  later  ages  are  the  Cyclo- 
pean walls  of  the  Pelasgic  city,  forming  a  quadrangle,  and 
quite  perfect,  as  if  they  were  finished  yesterday  :  for  though 
the  stones  are  fitted  together  without  cement,  each  is  like  a 
mass  of  rock,  and  the  arched  form  of  their  fitting  adds  to 
their  firmness.  One  of  the  ancient  gates  remains  under  a 
single  horizontal  stone  measuring  eighteen  feet  by  nine. 
The  figure  of  the  Pelasgic  god  Priapus  is  repeatedly  sculp- 
tured on  the  walls,  and  it  has  long  been  a  semi-religious 
custom  for  the  inhabitants  to  go  out  m  masse  to  mutilate  it 
on  Easter  Monday.  The  place  is  mentioned  by  Plautus, 
under  the  Greek  form  AXdrptov :  Strabo  calls  it  AXirpioy. 

'*  Alatri,  like  Ferentino,  was  surrounded  with  walls,  but  the  circle 
round  the  town  has  been  almost  entirely  destroyed,  and  only  the  walls 
of  the  citadel  remain,  an  astonishing  monument  of  that  period  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  without  parallel  amongst  the  towns  of  Latium,  so  that  to  see 
so  wonderful,  so  unparalleled  a  work,  which  may  be  compared  with  the 
buildings  of  Egypt,  is  well  worth  a  fatiguing  day's  journey. 

'•The  old  citadel  of  Alatri  (it  is  now  called  *  Civita'— the  town,  by 
itself)  occupies  the  highest  point  in  the  place,  and  is  now  the  site  of  th^ 
cathedral,  for  here,  as  at  Ferentino,  the  bishopric  has  nestled  within  the 


2  52  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

old  fortress.  And  this  hill,  on  the  broad  flat  surface  of  which  is  the 
cathedral,  is  surrounded,  supported,  and  surmounted  by  Cyclopean 
walls  reaching  to  a  height  of  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  feet.  When  I 
saw  and  I  walked  round  these  constructions,  of  black  Titanic  stone- 
work, to  which  the  eye  looks  up  with  astonishment,  so  well  preserved 
that  they  seem  as  if  their  age  might  be  reckoned  not  by  thousands  of 
years  but  by  years,  I  was  impelled  to  much  greater  admiration  of  human 
power  than  the  sight  of  the  Coliseum  of  Rome  had  inspired.  For  in 
times  of  advanced  civilization,  with  many  complete  mechanical  ap- 
pliances, amphitheatres  or  public  baths  like  those  of  Caracalla  or 
Constantine  might  be  piled  up,  without  imputing  anything  extraordinary 
to  the  strength  of  man  ;  and  even  the  walls  of  Dionysius  of  Syracuse, 
the  grandest  of  such  creations  which  I  had  yet  seen,  do  not  make  an 
equal  impression.  But  here  we  see  before  us  walls,  each  stone  of  which 
is  not  a  huge  square  but  a  block  of  irregular  shape,  many-sided,  hewn 
out  of  the  rock  ;  and  if  we  ask  in  wonder  by  what  mechanical  means 
such  huge  masses  of  rock  could  be  lifted  up  and  piled  one  upon  another, 
still  less  can  we  understand  how  it  was  possible  to  arrange  the  many- 
cornered  blocks  so  artistically  that  they  fit  into  one  another  exactly 
without  leaving  spaces  to  be  filled  up,  and  form  a  complete  gigantic 
mosaic . 

"Tradition  ascribes  this  species  of  ancient  Latin  buildings  to  the  time 
of  Saturn,  and  so  places  them  altogether  before  the  time  of  historical 
civilization  ;  but  scientific  research,  which  occupies  itself  so  much  with 
Indo- Germanic  and  Pelasgic  races  in  Italy,  is  forced  to  confess  that  it 
knows  nothing  of  the  nations  which  piled  up  these  works.  Their  ap- 
pearance shows  that  the  race  of  men  which  built  such  walls  must  have 
possessed  already  a  considerable  material  civilization  and  well-ordered 
political  arrangements.  As  these  Cyclopean  towns  are  found  near  one 
another,  and  scattered  over  the  whole  of  Latium,  it  follows  that  in  this 
country  a  great  number  of  independent  republics  or  states  were  estab- 
lished in  very  ancient  times,  whose  connection  with  one  another  we  do 
not  know.  But  such  immense  fortifications  imply  constant  war  between 
the  different  towns,  and  particularly  a  predatory,  unsafe,  and  isolated 
state  of  life.  To  bring  the  strength  of  the  men  into  a  suitable  propor- 
tion to  the  colossal  dimensions  of  the  works,  one  must  imagine  those  who 
erected  them,  or  who  came  as  enemies  to  storm  them,  to  have  been 
regular  giants.  But  these  erections  only  point  to  that  colossal  period 
with  which  the  civilization  of  men  in  all  nations  and  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  begins,  till  it  gradually  rises  from  the  materially  sublime  to  the 
representation  of  things  pleasing  and  beautiful,  which  more  perfect 
means  render  possible.     Altogether  these  Cyclopean  works  should  not 


CITADEL  OF  ALATRI.  253 

be  placed  in  too  dark  a  time  ;  perhaps  some  of  them  may  have  been 
built  in  Latium  after  Rome  was  founded,  and  the  step  from  this  many- 
cornered  style  of  building  to  the  hardly  less  colossal  square  stone  walls 
of  the  Etruscans  and  Romans  is  by  no  means  a  long  one. 

"Out  of  the  walls  of  this  Capitol  of  the  ancient  Alatri  led  a  principal 
gate  which  exists  still,  an  enormous  erection  made  of  horizontal  stones  ; 
besides  this  there  is  also  a  smaller  entrance,  and  three  square  niches  in 
the  south  wall  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  images  of  gods  may  have  been 
set  up  there,  while  at  the  same  time  Cyclopean  remains  in  the  middle  of 
the  castle  may  with  some  probability  be  held  to  be  the  public  altar  on 
which  festive  sacrifices  were  offered. 

"Till  the  year  1843  these  walls  were  half  buried  under  ruins  and 
creepers,  and  no  road  led  round  them.  A  visit  of  Gregory  XVI.  in- 
spired the  Alatrians  with  the  happy  thought  of  cleaning  and  clearing  out 
such  unparalleled  monuments  of  the  remotest  antiquity ;  so  2000  men 
worked  for  ten  days  at  removing  the  rubbish,  and  thus  the  Acropolis 
was  not  only  laid  bare  again  but  surrounded  with  a  road  called  Via 
Gregoriana,  by  which  one  can  walk  round  it  comfortably.  Then  too 
the  great  gate  was  dug  out,  and  the  ascent  to  the  plateau  re-opened. 
This  broad  flat  space  is  only  surrounded  by  a  stone  bulwark,  which  rises 
above  the  Cyclopean  wall,  and  as  it  contains  no  building  but  the  cathe- 
dral, it  admits  a  most  charming  view  of  the  mountain  scenery.  And 
indeed  the  beautiful  surroundings  make  such  an  enchanting  picture,  that 
I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  it  in  words,  or  even  to  indicate  the  lines 
of  the  mountains  which  rise  from  Elysian  fields  to  the  sunny  blue  above. 
In  the  perfect  stillness  and  indeed  deserted  condition  of  this  strange 
scene  of  remote  civilization,  the  impression  of  the  sublime  is  doubly 
effective. ' ' —  Gregorovius. 

Within  the  precincts  of  the  Pelasgic  fortress  stands  the 
Cathedral.  It  only  dates  from  the  last  century,  though  the 
see  was  created  in  a.d.  551 ;  but  it  is  a  conspicuous  feature 
in  all  distant  views  of  the  town.  A  finer  church  is  that  of  S. 
Maria  Maggiore^  which  has  three  gothic  portals  in  its  west 
front,  and  a  fine  rose-window  above  them.  The  mouldings 
are  richly  ornamented  with  acanthus.  It  had  formerly 
two  towers,  but  only  one  remains.  The  interior  is  com- 
pletely modernized.  From  the  heights  overhanging  the 
Cyclopean  walls   are    wild   views   over   the   Volscian  and 


254 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


Hernican  hills,  the  most  prominent  feature  being  a  bare 
mountain,  crowned  by  a  little  town  and  a  grove  of  cypresses. 
This  is  Fumone^  the  scene  of  the  imprisonment  and  death  of 
the  abdicated  hermit-Pope,  Celestine  V.,  immured  here  by. 
the  jealousy  of  his  successor,  Boniface  VIII.,  though  the 
next  Pope,  Clement  V.,  enrolled  him  amongst  the  saints. 
In  old  days  Fumone  was  carefully  watched,  for  its  lord  had 
feudal  rights  over  all  the  surrounding  country,  and,  when  he 
wished  to  summon  his  vassals,  either  in  defence  or  attack, 
he  lighted  a  bonfire  on  his  hill-top,  whence  the  proverb, — 
"  Quando  Fumone  fuma,  tutta  la  campagna  trema."     The 


Cyclopean  Gate  of  Alatri. 


people  of  Alatri  are   magnificently  handsome,  and  as  the 
women  come  down  the  steep  stairs  under  the  great  gateway, 


FROM  ALATRI  TO  FE RENTING. 


255 


with  their  flowing  veils,  their  rich  costume,  and  their  gleam- 
ing brass  conche  poised  upon  their  stately  heads,  they  are 
'wonderfully  in  keeping  with  the  scene. 

The  drive  back  from  Alatri  to  Ferentino  in  the  gloaming 
of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  days  in  the  beginning  of  April, 
gave  us  a  perfect  succession  of  charming  pictures,  not  only  of 
landscape — though  that  was  beautiful  exceedingly  in  the  still 
late  light — but  of  herdsmen  in  their  closely-fitting  blue  dress, 
with  their  guiding-poles  over  their  shoulders,  following  great 
grey  oxen  down  the  hollow  ways  between  the  red  earth  and 
bright  young  grass,  and  singing  as  they  went ;  and  of  women 


Inn  at  Ferentino. 


in  white  dresses,  with  snow-white  panni  folded  over  their 
dark  hair,  large  gold  earrings,  and  embroidered  aprons, 
sometimes  coming  up  from  wayside  fountains  with  the  great 
brazen  vessels  of  water,  which  one  sees  here  everywhere, 


256  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

poised  upon  their  heads,  like  beautiful  Greek  Caryatides. 
And  our  evening  was  a  perfectly  Italian  one — seated  in  the 
brick-floored,  wall-painted  room,  lighted  by  Italian  lamps 
with  three  burners  and  hanging  chains,  and  waited  on  by  a 
gaily-jewelled  hostess,  who  had  nothing  to  offer  but  eggs 
and  salad. 

Another  beautiful  morning  found  us  quite  rested,  and  up 
at  six  to  enjoy  the  early  light  glinting  through  the  old  olive- 
trees  under  our  window,  and  the  distant  views  of  rosy  peaks 
fading  fainter  into  a  misty  plain.  Then  we  set  off  to  explore 
the  town,  the  ancient  Ferentinum,  up  the  steep  dark  street, 
all  balconies,  and  loggias,  and  Gothic  windows,  with  plenty 
of  dirt  beneath,  and  only  a  strip  of  opal  sky  lighting  it  up  at 
the  end.  On  the  steepest  part  of  the  hill  is  the  Church  of  St 
Valentine,  with  a  very  curious  porch,  whose  canopy  is  formed 
by  a  projecting  apse.  A  little  further  is  S.  Francesco,  with 
strange  bas-reliefs  in  its  little  fore-court.  Hence  the  Via 
deir  Antico  Acropole,  a  street  full  of  long  steep  staircases, 
beloved  by  artists,  leads  up  to  a  terrace  under  Cyclopean 
walls  of  huge  stones,  something  like  those  of  Alatri.  The 
dark  passage  caverned  under  these  walls  emerges  close  to 
the  Duomo  (SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo),  which,  externally,  has 
much  of  its  Lombard  architecture  remaining ;  and,  within, 
a  splendid  opus-alexandrinum  pavement,  mended  with  frag- 
ments of  sculptured  marble-work,  and  a  glorious  twisted 
mosaic  pillar  nearly  the  whole  height  of  the  church,  secured 
against  the  wall  by  iron  clamps.  Behind  the  church  is  the 
bishop's  palace,  with  a  stately  old  staircase  guarded  by 
marble  lions. 

A  crowded  street,  where  old  women,  like  the  Fates  of 
Michael  Angelo,  sit  spinning  in  their  doorways,  surrounded 


FERENTmO.  257 

by  their  domestic  circles  of  goats,  cats,  dogs,  and  pigs,  all 
joining  vociferously  in  the  conversation,  leads  to  the  lower 


Bishop's  Staircase,  Ferentino. 

town.  The  stone  used  as  the  font  in  the  little  church  of  St 
Giovanni  Evangelista  has  an  inscription  from  the  inhabitants 
of  Ferentinum  to  Cornelia  Salonina,  wife  of  the  "  unconquered 
Gallienus."  From  the  piazza,  where  a  number  of  Roman 
altars  are  collected,  we  have  a  magnificent  view  over  moun- 
tain and  plain.  Hence,  also,  one  may  learn,  by  looking 
down,  to  find  one's  way  through  the  intricate  maze  of  filthy 
alleys,  many  of  which  have  such  stately  names  as  Via  dell' 
Atreo,  Vicolo  dei  Bagni  de  Flavio,  Vicolo  del  Calidario, 
&c.,  to  the  finest  of  the  churches,  Sta.  Maria  Maggiore, 
which,  in  its  beautiful  west  front,  has  a  door  with  detached 
red  marble  columns  banded  together,  and  above  it  the 
VOL.  I.  17 


258  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

emblems  of  the  Evangelists  on  either  side  of  the  Lamb  of 
God,  and  a  grand  rose  window. 


S.  Maria  Maggiore,  Ferentino. 

Old  Italian  histories  assert  that  S.  Maria  Salome,  the 
reputed  mother  of  S.  John  the  Evangelist,  was  buried  at 
Ferentino,  "  as  is  attested  by  the  archives  in  the  cathedral 
ofVeroli." 

Near  the  gate  close  to  this  church  an  inscription  hewn  in 

the  solid  rock  records  the  erection  of  a  statue  by  the  grateful 

people  of  Ferentinum  to  Quinctilius  Priscus,  who,  amongst 

other  largesses,  gave  them  crustula  and  mulsum  (cakes  and 

mead)  upon  his  birth-day,  with  sporfulce  (presents  of  money) 

for  the  decurions,  and  nucum  sparsiones  (scrambles  of  nuts) 

for  the  boys. 

"The  pride  of  Ferentino,  amongst  its  antiquities,  is  the  so-called 
'Testament.'  With  difficulty  I  climbed  over  rocks  and  through  the 
brambles  in  a  vineyard  to  reach  this  curiosity,  and  at  last  I  saw  before 
me  a  great  table  hewn  in  the  living  rock.  A  long  inscription  in  well- 
cut  characters  tells  here  that  Aulus  Quinctilius,  Quatuorvir  and  ^dile, 
was  the  benefactor  of  his  native  town,  bequeathing  to  it  all  his 
property  by  will,  for  which  the  town  gratefully  honoured  him  by  placing 
his  statue  publicly  on  the  Forum." — Gregorovius. 

Another  public  carriage  met  us  at  the  station  for  Anagni^ 


ANAGNI.  25g 

the  ancient  Anagnia,  the  capital  of  the  Hemicans,  and  one 
of  the  five  Saturnian  cities  whose  names  begin  with  the  first 
letters  of  the  alphabet — Anagni,  Alatri,  Arpino,  Area,  and 
Atino.  The  town  clings  to  terraces  on  the  bare  side  of  the 
Hemican  hills,  with  the  most  splendid  views  in  every 
direction.  Its  streets  perfectly  abound  in  quaint  archi- 
tectural fragments,  griffins,  lions,  open  loggias,  outside  stair- 
cases, trefoiled  windows,  and  great  arched  doorways,  and 
still  remind  one  of  the  expression  "municipium  ornatissi- 
mum,"  which  Cicero,  in  his  defence  of  Milo,  applies  to  this 
town.     Virgil  also  speaks  of  its  riches  : — 

"  Quos,  dives  Anagnia,  pascis." 
The  centre  of  life  here,  as  in  all  the  mountain  towns,  is 
the  piazza,  where  groups  of  brilliantly-dressed  peasants,  the 
women  all  wearing /d:;/;// again,  stand  gossipping  round  the 
fountain,  poising  their  brazen  coiiche  meanwhile  upon  its 
marble  ledges.  The  men  lie  basking  in  the  sunshine  along 
the  stone  ledges  of  the  terrace,  for  here  only  three  sides  of 
the  piazza  are  surrounded  with  houses,  the  fourth  is  open 
towards  the  valley  and  the  mountains. 

"  From  this  piazza  the  view  is  so  beautiful,  that  it  enchants  even  those 
who  have  seen  all  Italy  from  the  Alps  to  the  African  and  Ionian  sea. 
Immediately  opposite  rise  the  Volscian  hills,  whose  sunny  heights  are 
so  distinctly  seen  that  the  windows  in  the  houses  can  be  distinguished. 
Everywhere  Volscian  towns  catch  the  eye,  as  they  follow  one  another 
along  the  hills.  Monte  Fortino,  the  celebrated  Segni,  Gavignano, 
Rocca  Gorga,  Scurgola  ;  then  Morolo,  Supino,  Patrica,  behind  which 
the  tall  pyramid  of  Monte  Cacume  rises  blue  and  beautiful.  Further 
still  are  peak  after  peak  ;  then  more  towns  ;  here  Ferentino  on  a  hill ; 
there  Frosinone,  whose  citadel  even  is  visible,  and  Arnara,  Posi, 
Ceccano,  and  many  other  places  which  the  eye  can  discover.  Towards 
Rome  extends  a  large  plain  bounded  by  the  mountains  of  Palestrina, 
which  is  itself  visible  in  the  far  distance.  The  Latin  hills  also  appear, 
and  thus  the  view  embraces  a  large  part  of  Latium." — Gregorofvius. 


26o 


DAYS  NEAR  ROME, 


Beyond  the  piazza,  on  the  left,  open  the  huge  round  arches 
of  the  portico  of  the  old  Papal  palace.     Little  that  is  curious 


Papal  Palace,  Anagni. 

remains  in  the  interior;  yet  in  these  rooms  William  of 
Nogaret  insulted  the  mighty  Boniface  VIII.,  and  im- 
prisoned him  in  his  own  palace,  when  "  the  fleur-de-lis  was 
seen  in  Anagni."  Here,  also,  Innocent  III.,  Gregory  IX., 
and  Alexander  IV.,  held  their  courts  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  all  born  here,  and  all  sprung  from  native  families, 
and  once  canons  of  the  cathedral.  Behind  the  palace  a 
fragment  of  a  beautiful  Gothic  loggia  of  the  time  of  Boniface 
remains;  part  of  the  interior  is  now  used  as  a  theatre. 
There  is  not  a  book-shop  in  Anagni,  and  we  could  find  no 
one,  not  even  the  sacristan  of  the  cathedral,  who  knew 
anything  whatever  of  its  history.  The  utmost  they  could 
tell,  was  that  "  Bonifazio  "  had  lived  there,  that  his  statue 


CATHEDRAL  OF  A  NAG  NT. 


261 


Stood  on  their  walls,  and  that  Dante  had  written  of  him— 
what,  or  who  he  was,  they  were  quite  ignorant  of. 


Entrance  to  the  Cathedral,  Anagni« 

It  is  a  very  short  distance  up  the  hill  to  the  Cathedral 
(Sta.  Maria),  which  is  the  most  interesting  mediaeval  building 
in  this  part  of  Italy,  except  the  convent  of  Subiaco.  The 
see  dates  from  a.d.  487.  On  the  wall,  above  what  was 
once  the  great  south  entrance,  Boniface  VIII.  sits  aloft,  in 
robes  and  tiara,  in  his  throne  of  state.  Over  his  head, 
blazoned  in  gold  and  mosaic,  are  the  illustrious  alliances  of 


262  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  Gaetani  before  his  time.  The  steps  beneath  this  statue, 
which  must  have  had  a  magnificent  effect  in  the  open  space, 
as  seen  from  the  valley  beneath,  were  destroyed  thirty  years 
ago  by  a  certain  Marchese  (even  his  name  seems  to  be 
forgotten),  and  the  present  entrance  is  by  the  north,  where 
a  quaint  winding  staircase  leads  into  a  dark  gallery,  lined 
with  curious  old  frescoes  and  inscriptions,  and  so  into  the 
cathedral. 

"The  cathedral  of  Anagni,  though  several  times  renovated  by  the 
bishops  of  the  town  and  by  the  popes,  still  retains  its  original  Gothic- 
Roman  character.  The  facade  is  of  rude  architecture  ;  it  terminates  in 
an  obtuse-angled  gable,  the  triangle  of  which  is  cut  off  by  a  simple 
cornice.  In  it  is  an  arched,  unornamented  window,  beneath  which  is  a 
large  square  one,  evidently  of  a  later  date.  The  door  (there  is  only  one) 
has  a  cornice  in  very  bad  taste,  formed  of  different  blocks  of  stone 
patched  together,  and  ornamented  with  heads  of  oxen  and  lions,  the  rude 
work  of  the  middle  ages.  Two  pillars  are  built  into  the  wall,  with  the 
capitals  joined  together,  without  any  visible  object,  and  very  unsymme- 
trically  too,  as  they  are  only  on  one  side  of  the  door.  Over  the  door  is 
a  round  arch  adorned  with  simple  arabesques.  The  masonry  is  through- 
out of  the  black  limestone  from  the  neighbouring  mountains.  One  can 
sec  that  the  facade  still  retains  its  original  form,  and  has  only  been  re- 
stored at  a  later  period  in  a  hurry,  when  absolutely  necessary." — 
Gregoravius. 

The  interior  is  far  more  picturesque  than  beautiful.  In 
the  lofty  choir  is  a  grand  pascal  candlestick,  supported  by  a 
crouching  figure.  Portraits  of  all  the  popes  connected  with 
Anagni  hang  over  the  throne  and  stalls.  The  whole  pave- 
ment of  the  church  is  of  the  most  splendid  opus  alexan- 
drinum,  though  much  decayed,  and  in  the  choir  it  reaches  a 
degree  of  minuteness  and  perfection  like  delicate  jewellers' 
work.  Here,  on  the  Maundy  Thursday  of  1160,  Alexander 
III.  stood  to  curse  the  great  Emperor  Barbarossa.  Here 
Innocent  III.  read  aloud  the  bull  which  exconiniunicated 


ASSOCIATIONS  OF  ANAGNI.  263 

Frederick  II.,  and  on  this  same  spot  Alexander  IV.  banished 
the  young  Manfred.  Here  also  the  cardinals  elected  Inno- 
cent IV.,  after  they  had  received  the  furious  letter  of  the 
Emperor  Frederick  II.,  calling  them  "  sons  of  Belial."  In 
this  church  also  (September  7,  1303)  Boniface  VIII.  knelt 
at  the  altar  in  his  pontifical  robes,  when  the  French,  prompted 
jy  his  hereditary  enemies,  the  Colonnas,  had  forced  the 
gates  of  the  town,  and  burst  into  the  streets,  crying,  "  Vive 
le  roi  de  France,  et  meure  Boniface." 

"The  Pope  had  retired,  as  usual,  from  the  summer  heat  to  his  native 
city,  Anagni.  Here  he  seemed,  as  it  were,  to  pause,  to  be  gathering  up 
his  strength  to  launch  the  last  crushing  thunders  upon  the  head  of  the 
contumacious  king  of  France.  The  Bull  of  excommunication  was 
ordered  to  be  suspended  in  the  porch  of  the  cathedral  of  Anagni.  The 
8th  of  September  was  to  be  the  fatal  day. 

"  On  a  sudden,  on  the  7th  of  September,  the  peaceful  streets  of 
Anagni  were  disturbed.  The  Pope  and  the  Cardinals,  who  were  all 
assembled  around  him,  were  startled  with  the  trampling  of  armed  horse, 
and  the  terrible  cry,  which  ran  like  wild-fire  through  the  city,  *  Death 
to  Pope  Boniface  !  Long  live  the  King  of  France  ! '  Sciarra  Colonna, 
at  the  head  of  three  hundred  horsemen,  the  Barons  of  Ceccano  and 
Supino,  and  some  others,  the  sons  of  Master  Massio  of  Anagni,  were 
marching  in  furious  haste,  with  the  banner  of  the  King  of  France  dis- 
played. The  ungrateful  citizens  of  Anagni,  forgetful  of  their  pride  in 
their  holy  compatriot,  of  the  honour  and  advantage  to  their  town  from 
the  splendour  and  wealth  of  the  Papal  residence,  received  them  with 
rebellious  and  acclaiming  shouts. 

' '  The  bell  of  the  city,  indeed,  had  tolled  at  the  first  alarm  ;  the 
burghers  had  assembled  ;  they  had  chosen  their  commander ;  but  that 
commander,  whom  they  ignorantly  or  treacherously  chose,  was  Arnulf, 
a  deadly  enemy  of  the  Pope.  The  banner  of  the  Church  was  unfolded 
against  the  Pope  by  the  captain  of  the  people  of  Anagni.  The  first 
attack  was  on  the  palace  of  the  Pope,  on  that  of  the  Marquis  Gaetani, 
his  nephew,  and  those  of  three  Cardinals,  the  special  partisans  of  Boni- 
face. The  houses  of  the  Pope  and  of  his  nephew  made  some  resistance. 
The  doors  of  those  of  the  Cardinals  were  beaten  down,  the  treasures 
ransacked  and  carried  off;  the  Cardinals  themselves  fled  from  the  backs 
of  the  houses  through  the  common  sewer.     The  Pope  and  his  nephew 


264  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

implored  a  truce  ;  it  was  granted  for  eight  hours.  This  time  the  Pope 
employed  in  endeavouring  to  stir  up  the  people  to  his  defence  :  the 
people  answered  coldly  that  they  were  under  the  command  of  their 
captain.  The  Pope  demanded  the  terms  of  the  conspirators.  *  If  the 
Pope  would  save  his  life,  let  him  instantly  restore  the  Colonna  Cardinals 
to  their  dignity,  and  reinstate  the  whole  house  in  their  honours  and 
possessions  ;  after  this  restoration  the  Pope  must  abdicate,  and  leave  his 
body  at  the  disposal  of  Sciarra,'  The  Pope  groaned  in  the  depth  of  his 
heart.  '  The  word  is  spoken.'  Again  the  assailants  thundered  at  the 
gates  of  the  palace  j  still  there  was  obstinate  resistance.  The  principal 
church  of  Anagni,  that  of  Santa  Maria,  protected  the  Pope's  palace. 
Sciarra  Colonna's  lawless  band  set  fire  to  the  gates ;  the  church  was 
crowded  with  clergy  and  laity,  and  traders  who  had  brought  their 
precious  wares  into  the  sacred  building.  They  were  plundered  with 
such  rapacity  that  not  a  man  escaped  with  a  farthing. 

"The  Marquis  Gaetani  found  himself  compelled  to  surrender,  on  the 
condition  that  his  own  life,  that  of  his  family,  and  of  his  servants, 
should  be  spared.  At  these  sad  tidings  the  Pope  wept  bitterly.  The 
Pope  was  alone  ;  from  the  first  the  Cardinals,  some  from  treachery, 
some  from  cowardice,  had  fled  on  all  sides,  even  his  most  familiar 
friends  :  they  had  crept  into  the  most  ignoble  hiding-places.  The  aged 
Pontiff  alone  lost  not  his  self-command.  He  had  declared  himself  ready 
to  perish  in  his  glorious  cause  ;  he  determined  to  fall  with  dignity.  '  If 
I  am  betrayed  like  Christ,  I  am  ready  to  die  like  Christ.'  He  put  on 
the  stole  of  S.  Peter,  the  imperial  crown  was  on  his  head,  the  keys  of  S. 
Peter  in  one  hand  and  the  cross  in  the  other  :  he  took  his  seat  on  the 
Papal  throne,  and,  like  the  Roman  senators  of  old,  awaited  the  approach 
of  the  Gaul. 

*'  But  the  pride  and  cruelty  of  Boniface  had  raised  and  infixed  deep 
in  the  hearts  of  men  passions  which  acknowledged  no  awe  of  age,  of 
intrepidity,  or  religious  majesty.  In  William  of  Nogaret  the  blood  of 
his  Tolosan  ancestors,  in  Colonna  the  wrongs,  the  degradation,  the 
beggary,  the  exile  of  all  his  house,  had  extinguished  every  feeling  but 
revenge.  They  insulted  him  with  contumacious  reproaches ;  they 
menaced  his  life.  The  Pope  answered  not  a  word.  They  insisted  that 
he  should  at  once  abdicate  the  Papacy.  '  Behold  my  neck,  behold  my 
head,'  was  the  only  reply. 

"The  Pope  was  placed  under  close  custody,  not  one  of  his  own 
attendants  permitted  to  approach  him.  Worse  indignities  awaited  him. 
He  was  set  on  a  vicious  horse,  with  his  face  to  the  tail,  and  so  led 
through  the  town  to  his  place  of  imprisonment.  The  palaces  of  the 
Pope  and  of  his  nephew  were  plundered  \  so  vast  was  the  wealth,  that 


POPE  BONIFACE  VIII.  265 

the  annual  revenues  of  all  the  kings  in  the  world  would  not  have  been 
equal  to  the  treasures  found  and  canned  off  by  Sciarra's  freebooting 
soldiers.  His  very  private  chamber  was  ransacked;  nothing  left  but 
bare  walls. 

"At  length  the  people  of  Anagni  could  no  longer  bear  the  insult  and 
the  sufferings  heaped  upon  their  illustrious  fellow-citizen.  They  rose  in 
irresistible  insurrection,  drove  out  the  soldiers  by  whom  they  had  been 
over-awed,  now  gorged  with  plunder,  and  doubtless  not  unwilling  to 
withdraw.  The  Pope  was  rescued,  and  led  out  into  the  street,  where 
the  old  man  addressed  a  few  words  to  the  people  :  *  Good  men  and 
women,  ye  see  how  mine  enemies  have  come  upon  me,  and  plundered 
my  goods,  and  those  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  poor.  Not  a  morsel  of 
bread  have  I  eaten,  not  a  drop  have  I  drunk,  since  my  capture.  I  am 
almost  dead  with  hunger.  If  any  good  woman  will  give  me  a  piece  of 
bread  and  a  cup  of  wine, — if  she  has  no  wine,  a  little  water, — I  will 
absolve  her  ;  and  any  one  who  will  give  me  their  alms,  from  all  their 
sins.'  The  compassionate  rabble  burst  into  a  cry,  *  Long  life  to  the 
Pope  ! '  They  carried  him  back  to  his  naked  palace.  They  crowded, 
the  women  especially,  with  provisions,  bread,  meat,  water,  and  wine. 
They  could  not  find  a  single  vessel :  they  poured  a  supply  of  water  into 
a  chest.  The  Pope  proclaimed  a  general  absolution  to  all  except  the 
plunderers  of  his  palace.  He  even  declared  that  he  wished  to  be  at  peace 
with  the  Colonnas  and  all  his  enemies.  This  perhaps  was  to  disguise  his 
intention  of  retiring,  as  soon  as  he  could,  to  Rome. 

"The  Romans  had  heard  with  indignation  the  sacrilegious  attack  on 
the  person  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff.  Four  hundred  horse,  under  Matteo 
and  Gaetano  Orsini,  were  sent  to  conduct  him  to  the  city.  He  entered  it 
almost  in  triumph  ;  the  populace  welcomed  him  with  every  demonstra- 
tion of  joy.  But  the  awe  of  his  greatness  was  gone  ;  the  spell  of  his 
dominion  over  the  minds  of  men  was  broken. 

"  The  religious  mind  of  Cliristendom  was  at  once  perplexed  and 
horror-stricken  by  the  sacrilegious  violence  on  the  person  of  the  Supreme 
Pontiff :  it  shocked  some  even  of  the  sternest  Ghibellines.  Dante,  who 
brands  the  pride,  the  avarice,  the  treachery  of  Boniface  in  his  most 
terrible  words,  and  has  consigned  him  to  the  direst  doom,  nevertheless 
expresses  the  almost  universal  feeling.  Christendom  '  shuddered  to 
behold  the  Fleur-de-lis  enter  into  Anagni,  and  Christ  again  captive  in 
his  Vicar,  the  mockery,  the  gall  and  vinegar,  the  crucifixion  between 
robbers,  the  insolent  and  sacrilegious  cruelty  of  the  second  Pilate.* " 
— MilmarHs  Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity. 

**  Veggio  in  Alagna  entrar  lo  fiordaliso, 
E  nel  vicario  suo  Cristo  esser  catto  ; 


266  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Veggiolo  un'  altra  volta  esser  deriso, 
Veggio  rinnovellar  I'aceto  e  '1  fele, 
E  tra  vivi  ladroni  esser  anciso. 

Veggio  '1  nuovo  Pilato  si  crudele,  * 

Che  cio  nol  sazia,  ma,  senza  decreto, 
Porta  nel  tempio  le  cupide  vele." — Purgatorio^  xx.  89. 

Two  chapels  on  the  left  of  the  cathedral  nave  are  filled 

with  Gaetani   memorials.     In  one  is  a  Greek   inscription. 

In  the  other  is  a  painting  of  the  Madonna,  of  1322,  and  the 

grand  mosaic  tomb  wrought   by  the   Cosmati    ("  magister 

Cosmas,  civis  Romanus,  cum  filiis  suis  Luca  et  Jacopo  "), 

known  as  "II  sepolcro  della   famiglia   di    Bonifazio."      It 

bears  in  Latin  the  inscription  : 

"Whoever  thou  art  who  directest  thy  steps  to  this  venerable  church, 
know  at  once  the  founders  of  all  its  glories.  Peter  the  Bishop  founded 
it  with  great  efifort,  whom  noble  Salerno  reared  and  gave  to  us.  May  the 
only  Son  of  the  Supreme  Father  have  mercy  on  him." 

In  the  sacristy  are  preserved  some  curious  copes,  and  the 
croziers  of  Innocent  III.  and  Boniface  VI 11.  The  crypt  is 
given  up  to  the  especial  saints  of  Anagni,  who  are  numerous, 
and  whose  story,  in  a  series  of  very  early  frescoes,  occupies 
the  walls.  The  south  altar  is  devoted  to  Santa  Oliva,  whose 
bones  and  head  are  shown  in  a  glass  case  beneath  her 
statue.  Opposite  her  is  St.  Magnus,  bishop  and  mart>T, 
who  is  represented  above  seated  between  two  virgin  saints. 
Beneath  another  altar  are  the  martyrs  Secunda,  Aurelia,  and 
Neonissa.  In  the  tribune,  which  has  a  magnificent  pave- 
ment, is  the  papal  throne,  and  over  it,  in  ancient  fresco,  the 
whole  story  of  the  Apocalypse — the  seven  candlesticks,  the 
seven  churches,  the  twenty-four  elders  in  adoration  of  the 
spotless  Lamb,  &c.,  and,  in  the  centre,  above  the  altar,  the 
Redeemer  seated  on  a  rainbow,  with  the  two-edged  sword 
proceeding  out  of  his  mouth. 


ACUTO.  267 

The  tall  Romanesque  tower  of  the  Cathedral  is  not  joined 
to  the  rest  of  the  building,  but  stands  alone  upon  a  little 
green  platform  at  the  west  end  of  the  church.  Hence  there 
is  a  grand  view  over  the  valley,  but  to  Roman  Catholics  a 
more  interesting  feature  will  be  the  knot  of  brown  buildings 
on  the  barren  side  of  the  mountain,  about  six  miles  above 
Anagni;  for  this  is  Acuto,  yrhtre  the  recently  founded  but 
ever-increasing  order  of  the  Precious  Blood  had  its  origin, 
and  where  its  foundress,  Maria  de  Matthias,  lived  till  her 
death  in  August,  1866.  The  story  of  her  vocation  is  quite 
as  romantic  and  curious  as  that  of  any  old  saintly  legend, 
and  that  of  her  founding  here  a  large  sisterhood  and  school 
which  she  supported  by  faith  and  prayer,  without  any  defi- 
nite sources  of  assistance,  in  the  same  way  in  which  the 
immense  institutions  of  the  Protestant  Muller  are  carried  on 
at  Clifton.  Of  her  extraordinary  influence  on  the  surround- 
ing districts,  no  one  who  has  visited  them  can  have  a  doubt, 
or  of  the  power  of  her  sermons,  which  were  simple  discourses 
of  loving  practical  Christianity,  such  as  Miss  Marsh  might 
have  delivered.  When  she  was  likely  to  preach  thousands 
flocked  to  hear  her,  and  when  she  appeared,  a  silence  fell 
upon  the  crowd,  with  the  whisper,  "  Hush,  the  great  mother 
is  going  to  speak  to  us." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PALESTRINA. 

(Palestrina  is  about  27  miles  from  Rome  by  way  of  Zagarolo.  Pub- 
lic carriages  leave  the  Piazza  S.  Marco  daily  at  6  A.M.  for  Palestrina 
and  proceed  to  Olevano — fare,  five  francs.  A  shorter  way  of  reaching 
these  places  is  to  take  the  railway  as  far  as  the  Valmontone  Station, 
where  a  post-carriage,  with  seats  for  two,  meets  the  first  train.  It  is 
about  seven  miles  from  the  station  to  Palestrina.  But  the  best  plan 
of  all  is  to  drive  from  Velletri.  There  is  no  decent  inn  at  Pales- 
trina, but  comfortable  quarters  may  be  obtained  at  the  house  of  an 
artist's  widow,  sister  of  a  lawyer,  Anna  Pastina,  at  the  same  charges  as 
those  usual  in  country  inns.  Her  house — i,  Via  delle  Concie — is  the 
last  on  the  left  at  the  top  of  the  staircase  on  the  right  of  the  piazza.) 

AN  early  drive  from  Velletri  to  Palestrina,  the  ancient 
Praeneste,  is  delightful.  Then  the  cloudless  sky  is 
generally  opal  behind  the  soft  pink  mountains.  Reaching  the 
foot  of  the  Volscian  hills,  we  come  upon  the  most  picturesque 
town  of  Monte  Fortino,  a  fortress  of  the  Conti,  clambering  up 
the  side  of  a  hill  so  steep  that  each  row  of  houses  begins 
over  the  roof  of  its  neighbour,  and  each  has  a  clear  view  of 
the  sky. 

About  a. mile  distant,  at  the  spot  now  called  La  Civita, 
is  the  site  of  the  Volscian  city  Artena :  portions  of  the 
Cyclopean  walls  of  the  citadel  remain. 

It  is  about  three  miles  from  Monte  Fortino  (passing  the 
station)  to  Valmontone^  the  ancient  Toleria,  which  stands  on 


VALMONTONE, 


269 


a  tufa  rock  in  the  midst  of  the  plain  between  the  two  ranges 
of  mountains,  and  is  girt  by  old  republican  walls,  with  me- 
diaeval towers.  From  the  families  of  Conti,  Sforza,  and  Bar- 
berini,  it  has  passed  to  the  Pamfili,  by  whom  the  huge  palace 
which  crowns  the  town  was  built  in  1662.  The  eldest  son 
of  Prince  Doria  Pamfili  bears  the  title  of  Prince  of  Valmon- 
tone.  In  the  cortile  of  the  palace  are  some  inscriptions 
from  the  Labican  catacombs.  Adjoining  it  is  a  rather  hand- 
some cathedral  of  the  17th  century,  designed  by  Matteo  de 


Valmontone. 


Rossi.  There  are  several  bits  at  Valmontone  to  delight  an 
artist,  especially  at  the  entrance  of  the*  town,  where  a  magni- 
ficent fragment  of  the  ancient  wall  forms  the  foreground  to 
some  very  picturesque  houses.  Near  this  also  is  the  in- 
teresting old  church  of  Sant'  Antonio,  now  called  the  Ma- 
donna delle  Grazie. 

Pakstrina  is  quite  a  different  type  of  place  from  all  the 
others  we  have  seen,  and  its  people,  unlike  the  courteous 


270  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

peasants  we  have  hitherto  met  with,  are  savage  and  lawless, 
violent  and  avaricious.  Can  the  bitter  warfare  of  reprisal, 
of  which  both  ancient  Praeneste  and  mediaeval  Palestrina 
have  been  the  scene,  be  setting  its  mark  still  upon  the  in- 
habitants? for  perhaps  no  place  has  been  more  often  be- 
sieged, and  more  often  utterly  ruined  and  destroyed. 

Praeneste  is  one  of  the  towns  of  fabulous  origin.  Virgil 
ascribes  it  to  Cseculus  the  son  of  Vulcan  : 

*'  Nee  Praenestinse  fundator  defuit  urbis, 
Vulcano  genitum  pecora  inter  agrestia  regem 
Inventumque  focis  omnis  quern  credidit  setas, 
Cseculus." 

yEn.  vii.  678. 

Strabo  gives  it  a  Greek  origin,  and  says  that  it  was  first 
called  TioXvaTE^avoQ.  Pliny  also  says  that  it  was  called  Ste- 
phane,  a  name  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  derived  from 
the  appearance  of  the  castle  on  the  top  of  the  hill  being  like 
a  mural  crown.  Servius  derives  the  name  from  the  Trpirot, 
ilexes,  which  grew  here,  Cato  and  Festus  from  the  situation 
— "  quia  montibus  praestet." 

Even  in  the  time  of  the  Siculi,  Virgil  describes  Praeneste 
as  having  been  governed  by  a  king  called  Herilus,  who  fell 
in  defending  his  country  against  the  Latins.  Livy  says  that 
eight  towns  were  dependent  upon  it.  It  was  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  a  Roman  colony  upon  the  failure  of  the  strug- 
gle in  favour  of  the  Tarquins.  After  the  defeat  of  Caius 
Marius,  who  killed  himself  within  its  walls,  Praeneste  fell  into 
the  hands  of  Sylla,  who  totally  annihilated  the  population 
and  the  city  alike  : — 

"  .         .         .         Vidit  Fortuna  colonos 
Praenestina  suos  cunctos  simul  ausa  recisos, 
Unius  populum  pereuntem  tempore  mortis." 

Lucan.  ii.  193. 


PRMNESTE.  271 

But  Sylla  rebuilt  the  town  with  the  utmost  magnificence, 
and  erected  the  Temple  of  Fortune,  which  was  so  splendid 
that  the  Athenian  philosopher  Carneades  said  he  had 
"  never  seen  a  Fortune  so  fortunate  as  that  of  Praeneste." 
Its  glories  were  celebrated  by  several  of  the  Latin  poets. 

**  Sextus  Junonis  mensis  fuit     Aspice  Tibur, 
Et  Praenestinae  mcenia  sacra  Deae." 

Ovid.  Fast.  vi.  61. 

"^dificator  erat  Cetronius,  et  modo  curvo 
Littora  Caietae,  summa  nunc  Tiburis  arce, 
Nunc  Praenestinis  in  montibus,  alta  parabat 
Culmina  villarum,  Grsecis  longeque  petitis 
Marmoribus,  vincens  Fortuuae  atque  Herculis  aedem." 

Juv.  Sat.  xiv.  86. 

** .         .         .         sacrisque  dicatum 
Fortunse  Praeneste  jugis." 

Sil.  Ital.  viii.  366. 

•' .  .  .  sacro  juvenes  Praeneste  creati 
Occubuere  simul  :  votisque  ex  omnibus  unum 
Id  Fortuna  dedit,  junctam 'inter  praelia  mortem." 

Id.  ix.  404. 

**  Cicero  gives  a  curious  account  of  the  institution  of  the  divination 
called  the  Sortes  Fortunae  Primigeniae  Praenestinae  :  *  Numerius  Suffucius 
having,  in  consequence  of  frequent  dreams,  excavated  in  a  rock,  found 
a  piece  of  oak,  on  which  the  necessary  ceremonies  seem  to  have  been 
inscribed  in  ancient  characters.  The  place  was  inclosed,  honey  flowed 
from  an  olive  tree  on  the  spot,  and  the  Temple  of  Fortune  was  erected 
on  or  near  the  site."  (De  Divin.  ii.  41.)  "In  the  time  of  Cicero,  the 
credit  of  the  Sortes  Praenestinae  had  much  diminished." — GeWs  Topo-^ 
^aphy  of  Rome. 

Its  coolness,  which  was  an  agreeable  change  after  the 
heat  of  Rome,  made  Praeneste  a  favourite  summer  resort  to 
the  emperors  Augustus,  Tiberius,  Nero,  Domitian,  and 
Hadrian.  Suetonius  describes  Augustus  as  employing  two 
days  on  the  journey  hither  from  Rome.  Horace  alludes  to 
the  freshness  of  the  climate. 


272  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

** .         .     seu  mihi  frigidum 
Praeneste,  seu  Tibur  supinum, 
Seu  liquidse  placuere  Baice. 

Horace^  iii.  Od.  4. 

Sometimes  the  poet  himself  resided  here  : 

**  Trojani  belli  scriptorem,  maxime  Lolli, 
Dum  tu  declamas  Romae,  Prseneste  rclegi." 

i.  Epist.  2. 

"  Quis  timet  aut  timuit  gelida  Praeneste  ruinam  ?  " 

Juv.  Sat.  iiL  190. 

In  970,  the  town,  already  called  Palestrina,  was  given  by 
Pope  John  XIII.  to  his  sister  Stephania,  and  through  the 
marriage  of  her  grand-daughter  Emilia  ("  Imilia  nobilissima 
comitissa  "),  came  into  the  Colonna  family,  whose  history  is 
henceforth  that  of  the  place.  When,  in  12 17,  the  Cardinals 
Giacomo  and  Pietro  Colonna  had  opposed  the  election  of  a 
member  of  the  rival  family  of  the  Gaetani  of  Anagni  to  the 
papacy,  they  fled  hither  with  their  kinsfolk.  The  newly- 
elected  pope,  Boniface  VIII.,  immediately  issued  bulls  con- 
fiscating all  the  estates  of  the  Colonnas,  and  promised 
plenary  indulgences  to  all  who  would  take  up  arms  against 
them. 

"Stronghold  after  stronghold  was  stormed;  castle  after  castle  fell. 
Palestrina  alone  held  out  with  intrepid  obstinacy.  Almost  the  whole 
Colonna  house  sought  their  last  refuge  in  the  walls  of  this  redoubted 
fortress,  which  defied  the  siege,  and  wearied  out  the  assailing  forces. 
Guido  di  Montefeltro,  a  famous  Ghibelline  chieftain,  had  led  a  life  of 
bloody  and  remorseless  warfare,  in  which  he  was  even  more  distinguished 
by  craft  than  by  valour.  He  had  treated  with  contemptuous  defiance 
all  the  papal  censures  which  rebuked  and  would  avenge  his  discom- 
fiture of  many  papal  generals,  and  the  depression  of  the  Guelfs.  In  an 
excess  of  devotion,  now  grown  old,  he  had  taken  the  habit  and  the  vows 
of  S .  Francis,  divorced  his  wife,  given  up  his  wealth,  obtained  remission 
of  his  sins,  first  from  Coelestine,  afterwards  from  Boniface,  and  was 


THE  COLONNA  FAMILY. 


273 


living  in  quiet  in  a  convent  at  Ancona,  He  was  summoned  from  his 
cell  on  his  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  and,  with  plenary  absolution  for  his 
broken  vows,  commanded  to  inspect  the  walls  and  give  his  counsel  for 
the  best  means  of  reducing  the  stubborn  citadel.  The  old  soldier  sur- 
veyed the  impregnable  defences,  and  then,  requiring  still  further  abso- 
lution for  any  crime  of  which  he  might  be  guilty,  uttered  his  memora- 
ble oracle,  **  Promise  largely,  keep  little  of  your  promises."* — Milman^  r 
Latin  Christianity. 

Thus  the  Colonnas  were  induced  to  open  their  gates,  and 
proceeded  in  mourning  robes  to  meet  the  Pope  at  Rieti. 
He  received  them  with  outward  forgiveness,  and  gave  them 
absolution ;  but  while  they  were  detained  as  his  guests, 
Ranieri,  Bishop  of  Pisa,  was  sent  to  destroy  Palestrina  ut- 


Cathedral,  Palestrina. 

terly,  and  ordered  to  spare  nothing  except  "the cathedral  of  S. 

•  Among  the  evil-counsellors  in  Malebolge,  swathed  and  tormented  in  the  flame  of 
his  own  consciousness,  Dante  saw  the  shade  of  Guido  di  Montefeltro,  who  had  found 
that  the  Devil  was  a  logician  and  unable  to  reconcile  the  wish  to  repent  with  the  wish 
to  sin.  So  the  cordelier's  frock  had  to  give  place  to  the  robe  of  flame,  in  which  the 
unhappy  warrior  must  rue  eternally  the  crafty  counsel, 


VOL.  I. 


"  Lunga  promessa  con  I'attender  corto." 

In/,  xxvii. 


18 


274  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Agapitus."  Everything  else  was  "  totali  exterminio  et  ruinge 
exposita,"  a  plough  was  driven  over  the  ruins,  and  the  ground 
was  sown  with  salt ;  even  the  famous  marble  staircase  of  a 
hundred  steps,  up  which  people  could  ride  on  horseback  into 
the  palace,  perished.  The  Colonna  family  fled  in  all  direc- 
tions, but  Sciarra  Colonna  returned  just  at  the  time  when 
Boniface  was  quarrelling  with  Philippe  le  Bel,  and  joining  the 
French,  captured  the  Pope  at  Anagni.  Under  Benedict  IX., 
the  ban  against  the  Colonnas  was  removed,  and  under  Cle- 
ment V.  Stefano  Colonna  was  allowed  to  rebuild  Palestrina. 
In  1350  and  1354  the  town  was  successfully  defended 
against  Rienzi,  but  in  1436,  when  the  Colonnas  had  rebelled 
against  Eugenius  IV.,  it  was  again  besieged  and  taken  by 
his  legate  Cardinal  Vitelleschi,  who  completely  razed  it  to 
the  ground,  not  even  the  cathedral  being  spared  this  time. 
In  1447,  Nicholas  V.  gave  permission  that  Palestrina  should 
once  more  be  rebuilt,  but  it  never  again  became  a  place  of 
any  importance,  and  the  only  noteworthy  event  which  has 
since  occurred  there,  has  been  the  birth,  in  1524,  of  the 
musician  Pierluigi  da  Palestrina,  author  of  the  mass  of  Pope 
Marcellus.  The  last  Colonna  of  Palestrina  was  Francesco, 
who  died  in  1636,  and  in  1630  the  town  was  sold  to  Carlo 
Barberini,  brother  of  Urban  VIII.,  and  it  still  belongs  to  that 
family. 

Remains  of  the  old  Prseneste  meet  us  on  every  side,  and 
it  is  typical  of  the  place  and  its  overflow  of  antiquities,  that 
the  curbstone  at  the  cross-roads  as  we  approach  it  is  a  head- 
less ancient  statue.  In  the  walls  of  almost  every  house 
fragments  of  pillars  and  capitals  may  be  discovered.  And 
what  is  chiefly  remarkable  is  that  almost  all  the  remains 
belong  to  one  building,  the  gigantic  Tejnple  of  Fortune^  built 


PALAZZO  BARBERINI,  PALESTRINA. 


275 


by  Sylla,  which  rose  upon  terraces,  tier  above  tier,  occupying 

the  whole  space  now  filled  by  the  town,  and  perhaps  the 

largest  building  in  Italy. 

Behind  Palestrina  the  mountain  rises  abruptly,  bare  and 

arid,  and  the  town  itself  stands  very  high.     Virgil  alludes  to 

the  cool  climate  of  Praeneste  : — 

"  Quique  altum  Praeneste  viri,  quique  arva  Gabinse 
Junonis,  gelidumque  Anienem,  et  roscida  rivis 
Hemica  saxa  colunt : —  " 

There  is  not  much  to  be  seen  in  the  lower  town.  In  the 
piazza  are  some  pillars  of  the  Temple  of  Fortune  built  into 
a  wall,  and  the  small  ugly  Cathedral^  which  has  a  low  but 
graceful  gothic  campanile.  In  the  highest  part  of  the  town 
is  the  Palazzo  Barberini,  of  which  the  wing  is  used  as  a  bar- 
rack, but  which  is  for  the  most  part  as  deserted  and  forlorn 
a  specimen  of  an  old  Italian  palace,  once  exceedingly  mag- 


The  Barberini  "Well,  Palestrina. 


nificent,  as  can  well  be  found.     Its  front  was  built  in  a 
vast  semi-circle,  so  as  to  follow  the  plan  of  the  temple  of 


276  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Sylla,  and  is  approached  by  curved  staircases  enclosing  an 
old  well.  The  halls  on  the  ground-floor  are  painted  by  the 
Zuccheri,  but  Apollo  with  his  dove-chariot,  and  Juno  with 
her  peacocks,  are  fading  with  the  damp  which  streams  from 
the  walls.  We  asked  the  old  housekeeper  if  she  did  not 
suffer  from  it.  "  Ah,  yes,"  she  said,  "  all  my  hair  has  come 
off,  and  all  my  teeth  have  fallen  out ;  for  even  when  out  of 
doors  it  is  a  caldoferoce,  here  within  it  h  fresco  assai."  She  said 
she  was  2,  forestiera,  for  she  came  from  Frescati,  and  though 
she  had  been  here  forty  years,  she  could  not  accustom  her- 
self to  the  wickedness  of  the  people, — "II  mondo  e  bello, 
ma  se  fosse  buono  sarebbe  meglio."  On  the  upper  floor 
is  the  famous  mosaic,  found  amid  the  ruins  of  the  Temple  of 
Fortune,  representing  the  joy  of  the  people  and  the  beasts 
of  Egypt  in  the  annual  overflow  of  the  Nile.  It  is  like 
a  dictionary  of  the  manners  and  customs  and  people  of  the 
Egypt  of  its  time.  Priests  and  priestesses,  warriors,  fisher- 
men, shepherds,  and  huntsmen  are  equally  represented,  with 
all  the  peculiar  animals  of  the  country,  and  its  plants,  be- 
sides its  temples  and  houses.  The  mosaic  was  discovered 
in  1638  and  it  is  quite  perfect :  the  arms  and  the  bees  of  the 
Barberini  have  been  added  in  the  corners.  There  is  a  grand 
view  from  the  balcony  of  this  room  over  the  Volscian  and 
Alban  ranges,  while  the  Hernican  and  Sabine  hills  are  seen 
in  profile. 

*•  What  is  most  remarkable  in  the  palace  of  Palestrina  is  its  incom- 
parable situation  on  the  height,  where  an  ever-fresh  and  health-giving 
breeze  blows,  and  whence  the  indwellers  enjoy  a  view,  whose  beauty  is 
indescribable.  Here  a  great  part  of  Latium  lies  spread  out  beneath  the 
eyes  on  one  side,  and  of  Tuscany  or  the  patrimony  of  S.  Peter's  on  the 
other,  a  great  and  classic  district,  whence  rise  the  Latin  and  Volscian 
mountains,  between  which  a  wide  plain  opens,  reaching  to  the  distant 


5.  MARIA  DELIA   VILLA.  277 

glancing  sea.  There  is  the  world-town  Rome  steeped  in  the  mist ; 
there  stands  the  island-like  Soracte;  hard  by  rise  the  mighty  chains  of 
the  Apennines  ;  on  the  left,  at  their  feet,  is  the  deep  beautiful  valley  of 
the  Sacco,  over  which  shine  the  gleaming  hill-towns  of  Monte-Fortino  and 
Segni ;  further  are  the  heights  of  the  Serra,  and  the  airy  chiefs  of  all 
these  hills,  whose  varied  forms  lose  themselves  in  the  sunny  atmosphere 
beyond  Anagni  and  Ferentino.  One  looks  upon  these  plains  and  hills, 
bedecked  with  towns  and  villages,  of  which  most  are  rich  in  associations, 
and  the  early  history  of  Rome,  the  story  of  the  empire,  or  of  the  middle 
ages,  comes  back  to  one's  recollection,  and  when  one  feels  that  Umbria, 
the  Sabina,  Latium,  the  Equian  territory,  the  land  of  the  Hernicans, 
Etruria,  the  Volscian  country,  the  Alban  hills,  and  the  sea  are  united  in 
one  panorama,  one  appreciates  the  grandeur  of  this  view.  "When  a 
Colonna  of  the  middle  ages  looked  down  from  the  windows  of  the  old 
palace  or  castle,  he  might  venture,  as  he  gazed  upon  his  possessions,  to 
feel  that  he  was  the  richest  and  mightiest  chieftain  in  Latium." — Grego- 
rovius. 

The  plain  beneath  the  windows  is  so  rich  that  it  looks 
like  one  vast  garden  of  fruit-trees,  amongst  which,  about  a 
mile  from  the  town,  near  S.  Maria  della  Villa  (the  name 
commemorating  it),  the  remains  of  the  immense  villa  of 
Hadrian  may  be  discovered.  They  are  little  worth  visiting, 
yet  here  the  Braschi  Antinous  and  other  important  statues 
have  been  found,  and  smaller  antiquities  are  dug  up  daily. 
Madama  Pastina,  who  lets  the  lodgings  to  strangers,  has  a 
collection  of  them,  chiefly  terra-cottas  and  small  bronzes, 
which  she  sells  at  low  prices.  The  little  statuettes  of  For- 
tune suckling  a  child  are  very  interesting. 

The  hill-side  above  Palestrina  is  so  bare  and  the  sun  beats 
so  pitilessly  upon  its  white  rocks,  that  it  is  best  to  put  off  the 
ascent  till  near  sunset.  It  may  be  made  on  donkeys,  but 
they  are  atrociously  bad.  We  were  obliged  to  dismiss  ours  ; 
and  when  we  reproached  its  owner  for  having  brought  it,  he 
coolly  said — "  Yes,  he  knew  that  it  was  bad,  and  would  cer- 
tainly fall  down,  but  he  brought  it  because  if  a  saddle  was 


278 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


once  put  on  it  must  be  as  much  paid  for  as  if  it  had  been 
used.     So  few  strangers  came,  that  they  must  be  taken  ad- 


Street  Scene,  Palestrina. 

vantage  of."  We  did  not  wonder  that  so  few  came  amongst 
this  savage  population.  Every  woman  and  child  you  meet, 
however  well  dressed  they  may  be,  rush  at  you  with  defiant 
shouts,  insisting,  not  petitioning,  "  Signor,  dammi  un  baiocc.'' 
From  every  window  hands  are  outstretched.  Stern-looking 
Sibyls  scowl  their  demands  at  you,  distaff  in  hand,  upon 
their  doorsteps.  Dozens  of  ragged  children  yell  and  tumble 
over  one  another,  and  follow  you  for  hours,  dancing  like 
frantic  little  demons,  wherever  you  go.  Some  friends  cf 
ours   ascended  the  mountain,    followed  by  hampers   well 


S.  PIETRO.  279 

equipped  for  a  delicious  pic-nic.  They  reached  the  top, 
and  were  surrounded  by  the  inhabitants  of  S.  Pietro.  The 
hampers  were  unpacked  and  the  luncheon  spread  out,  and 
— before  any  resistance  could  be  offered  or  even  suggested, 
the  thronging  swarms  had  descended  upon  the  feast  like 
locusts,  and,  in  one  moment,  men  and  women  tore  up  the 
chickens  and  swallowed  the  limbs  at  a  mouthful,  crunching 
bones  and  all  like  wild  beasts,  so  that  not  the  slightest  vest- 
ige remained,  and  the  rightful  owners  were  left,  dumb- 
foundered  and  faanished,  to  stare  at  their  empty  table-cloth. 

We  had  happily  no  such  attractions  to  offer,  but  were  well 
persecuted  notwithstanding,  and  heartily  cursed  by  troops 
of  hungry  ragged  urchins  because  we  had  brought  nothing 
for  them,  as  well  as  by  a  shaggy-looking  ruffian,  who  was  im- 
prisoned under  the  Barberini  Palace,  for  having  lately  mur- 
dered his  wife  and  son,  and  who  stretched  out  his  bony  hand 
with  nails  like  claws,  and  shook  it  at  us  through  the  iron  bars  as 
we  passed.  Yet  an  officer,  who  was  quartered  at  the  palace, 
told  us  that  the  people  here  are  perfectly  angelic  compared 
to  those  of  the  neighbouring  Cavi.  There,  on  the  slightest 
contradiction,  the  natives  never  hesitated  to  pull  out  a  stiletto 
or  a  revolver,  and  he  never  knew  a  time  when  six  or  seven 
of  his  men  were  not  suffering  from  their  violence  while  they 
were  quartered  there. 

The  view  from  the  top  is  certainly  magnificent.  No 
wonder  that  Hannibal  climbed  up  to  survey  it  in  order  to 
assist  his  military  operations.  It  is  the  most  historical  pano- 
rama imaginable.  Rome  is  seen  amidst  the  mists  of  the  plain. 
Nearer  us  are  Gabii,  Collatia,  and  Zagarolo.  On  the  Alban 
hills  are  Tusculum,  Frescati,  Monte  Porzio,  Monte  Com- 
patri,  Labicum  (now  Colonna),  Corbio  (now  Rocca  Priora), 


28o  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Velitrae  (now  Velletri).  Then  on  the  distant  sea-coast  we 
can  make  out  Astura,  Nettuno,  Antium  (Porto  d'Anzio), 
Ardea,  Pratica,  Ostia,  Porto,  and  Fiumicino.  On  the 
Volscian  hills  are  Monte  Fortino,  CoUe  Ferro  and  Signia 
(Segni);  on  the  Hernicans,  Anagni,  Ferentino,  Paliano, 
Genazzano,  and  Cavi,  and  the  fore-ground  is  formed  by  the 
Cyclopean  walls  of  Praeneste  !  Looking  down  upon  all  these 
scenes,  girt  by  the  huge  polygonal  stones  of  the  walls  of  the 
ancient  citadel,  is  the  modern  village  of  Sa7i  Pietro^  a  place 
so  dilapidated  and  crumbling,  so  bare  and  colourless,  that  it 
looks  as  if  it  had  been  transported  from  Africa  to  this  windy 
height.  Here  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  believes  that  St. 
Peter  dwelt  for  some  time,  and  here,  in  the  church,  he  is 
commemorated  in  a  statue  by  Bernini,  as  well  as  in  a  good 
picture  representing  his  martyrdom  by  Pietro  di  Cortona. 
The  holy  water  basons  are  supported  by  ancient  cippi. 


Colonna  Castle,  Palestrina. 


Still  higher,  on  the  last  peak,  stand  the  huge  ruins  of  the 
fortress,  rebuilt  by  the  famous  Stephen  Colonna,  which  bears 


PONTE  S.  ANTONIO,  281 

over  its  gate,  beneath  the  Colonna  arms,  the  inscription, 
"  Magnificus  DNS  Stefan  de  Columna-redificavit  civitatem 
penestre  cv  monte  et  arce.     Anno  1332." 

In  summer  the  stagnation  of  Palestrina  is  enlivened  by  the 
presence  of  the  Barberini  family,  who  live,  not  at  the  palace 
with  the  mosaic,  but  at  another  lower  down  in  the  town, 
quite  in  a  feudal  manner,  and,  as  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Palestrina,  hold  receptions  in  their  garden,  to  which  all  the 
small  gentry  of  the  place  are  invited. 

The  Ponte  S.  Antonio  may  be  visited  from  Palestrina.  It 
is  a  magnificent  Roman  arch  120  feet  in  height,  not  far  from 
Poli,  by  which  the  Aqua  Claudia  and  the  Anio  Novus  were 
carried  across  a  deep  ravine  in  the  Campagna. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

GENAZZANO,  PALIANO,  AND  OLEVANO. 

(At  Olevano  there  is  an  excellent  country  inn,  kept  by  Nino  and 
Pepina  Baldi,  much  frequented  by  artists,  who  reside  here  for  months 
in  summer.  The  charges  for  pension,  including  everything,  are  five 
francs  a  day,  or  four  francs  if  for  a  long  time.  A  carriage  may  be  ob- 
tained from  Olevano  to  meet  the  train  at  the  Valmontone  Station  by 
writing  beforehand  to  Casa  Baldi.  The  public  carriage,  which  leaves  the 
Piazza  S.  Marco  at  six  a.m.  for  Palestrina,  proceeds  to  Olevano — fare, 
from  four  to  five  francs.  At  Subiaco  there  is  a  comfortable  small  hotel 
with  capital  food — Locanda  della  Pernice — pension,  six  francs  a  day. ) 

IT  is  a  pleasant  drive  of  three  miles  from  Palestrina  to  Cavi, 
which  is  built  on  the  edge  of  a  steep  bank  over  a  tor- 
rent, approached  by  a  handsome  bridge,  and  entered  by  a 
gateway,  over  which  is  an  inscription,  dedicating  the  place  to 
the  especial  protection  of  the  Madonna.  To  her  the  in- 
habitants trust  to  supply  them  with  all  the  necessaries  of 
life,  and  exist  themselves  in  a  far  nitnte  not  very  dolce,  but 
unending.  The  very  dogs  seemed  too  apathetic  to  move 
when  our  carriage  approached  where  they  lay  in  the  sun. 
Some  ragged  children  were  rolling  in  the  gutter,  while  their 
mother  was  engaged  in  lavishing  the  tenderest  embraces  and 
kisses  upon  a  pet  pig — the  son  of  her  heart.  In  the  market- 
place rises  a  column  decorated  with  the  arms  of  the  Colonna, 
of  whom  Cavi  is  a  fief.  The  dialect  of  the  people  here  is 
very  pecuUar.     Six  miles  beyond  Cavi,  after  passing  a  chapel 


GENAZZANO. 


28- 


beautifully  situated  near  an  old  pine  and  some  cypresses, 
Gmazzano  rises  in  a  valley  on  the  left  about  half  a  mile 
distant  from  the  road.  It  contains  the  shrine  of  the  Ma- 
donna di  Buon  Consiglio,  who  flew  hither  through  the  air 
from  Albania. 

"From  this  time  the  Madonna  of  Genazzano,  called  *Our  Lady  of 
Good  Offices,'  began  to  work  miracles,  and  a  church  was  built  in  her 
honour,  with  a  monastery  adjoining  it.  The  Order  of  the  Augustines 
possessed  themselves  of  this  wonder-working  and  holy  source  of  gain, 
which  is  not  less  profitable,  if  not  more  so,  than  the  Madonna  of  the 
Augustine  monastery  at  Rome.  For  this  Divinity  of  Genazzano  enjoys 
throughout  the  whole  of  Latium  a  reputation,  which  exactly  corresponds 
with  that  of  a  heathen  oracle.  Twice  a  year,  in  spring  and  in  summer, 
her  festival  is  celebrated,  and  thus  a  double  harvest  of  offerings  is  reaped, 
besides  innumerable  presents  of  money  and  jewels  brought  by  the  wor- 
shippers. And  as  even  the  poorest  countryman  lays  his  mite  upon  the 
altar  of  the  picture,  it  may  be  said  that  this  one  Madonna  taxes  the 
whole  Latian  Campagna  as  well  as  the  State  itself.  I  was  told  that  the 
offerings  are  collected  by  certain  confraternities  which  exist  in  the  Cam- 
pagna ;  each  member  puts  into  the  common  fund  as  much  as  five  baiocchi 
a  month,  and  thus  a  travelling  confraternity  brings  sometimes  as  much 
as  a  hundred  scudi.  The  yearly  receipts  of  this  place  of  pilgrimage  are 
estimated  at  37,500  francs." — Gregorovius. 

The  festa  of  the  Madonna  of  Genazzano,  on  the  25th  of 


Genazzano. 

April,  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  and  the  most  frequented 


284  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

in  this  part  of  Italy.  A  figure-artist  should  never  fail  to  see 
it,  and  the  most  sanguine  expectations  as  to  colour  and  cos- 
tume cannot  possibly  be  disappointed. 

**  Even  on  the  eve  of  the  festival  the  pilgrims  begin  to  arrive,  and  the 
place  and  the  whole  landscape  becomes  animated  in  a  wonderful  manner, 
while  the  air  resounds  perpetually  with  the  chanting  of  Litanies. 
Through  all  the  streets  pass  gay  but  orderly  crowds.  They  come  from 
the  Abruzzi,  from  the  sandal  land,  from  Sora,  from  the  Liris,  and  from 
all  parts  of  the  Latian  Campagna. 

"  The  festival  of  Jupiter  Latiaris  seems  to  be  renewed  before  our  eyes, 
so  numerous  are  the  thousands  that  approach,  so  varied  their  dress  and 
their  dialects.  They  come  down  from  the  hills  with  their  solemn  chant  of 
the  *  Ora,'  there  down  the  broad  road,  here  along  the  river,  by  field  paths, 
ever  and  again  fresh  bands  of  pilgrims  in  bright  red,  green,  and  blue 
costumes,  with  their  tall  pilgrim  staves  [bordoni)  in  their  hands,  and  the 
sight  combined  with  the  grandeur  of  the  scenery  is  one  which  would  be 
alike  wonderful  to  the  artist,  the  poet,  and  the  historian. 

'* .  .  .  They  wander  along  the  Sacco,  and  down  from  the  hills  {come 
i  griif  che  van  cantando  lor  lai),  like  the  cranes  who  sing  as  they  go. 
The  middle  ages  passed  before  me  ;  and  I  thought  of  those  bands  of 
pilgrims  who  thronged  to  Rome  at  the  Jubilee  year,  and  more  than  once 
the  sight  made  me  repeat  that  beautiful  verse  in  the  pilgrim  sonnet  of 
the  Vita  Nuova, 

Deh  !  peregrini,  che  pensosi  andate 
Forse  di  cosa  che  non  v'e  presente, 
Venite  voi  di  si  lontana  gente, 
Com'  alia  vista  voi  ne  dimostrate  ? 

"  They  go  by  tens,  twentys,  fiftys,  hundreds,  and  even  more.  All  ages 
are  lepresented  amongst  them  ;  the  old  man  leans  on  the  same  pilgrim 
staff  which  has  supported  him  already  fifty  times  along  the  same  road, 
and  this  may  perhaps  be  the  last  time  :  the  matron  passes  with  her  grand- 
children ;  the  beautiful  and  blooming  maiden ;  the  sturdy  youth,  the 
boy ;  even  infants  are  here  carried  on  the  heads  of  their  mothers,  for  in 
one  of  these  processions  I  saw  a  young  woman  carrying  on  her  head  a 
basket  in  which  lay  a  laughing  child,  its  eyes  wide  open  as  if  it  was  en- 
joying the  beautiful  sunshine.  Most  of  the  women  carry  on  their  heads 
a  basket  of  provisions,  or  a  bundle  of  clothes,  which  still  more  increases 
the  beauty  of  the  spectacle.  If  any  one  could  lift  up  the  veil  from 
these  souls  they  would  see  concealed  crime  side  by  side  with  innocence, 
and  vice,  remorse,  pain,  and  virtue  passing  in  a  motley  crowd. 


THE  GENAZZANO  PILGRIMAGE. 


285 


**  It  is  like  a  great  and  beautiful  but  serious  masked  procession  which 
passes  over  one  of  the  most  beautiful  scenes  of  nature,  always  with  fresh 
dresses  and  colours,  and  with  different  faces.     One  sees  the  people  of 


Conudino,  Valley  of  the  Sacco. 


Frosinone,  of  Anagni,  the  inhabitants  of  Veroli,  of  Arpino,  of  Anticoli, 
of  Ceprano,  and  the  Neapolitans  from  Sora. 

"See  tlie  groups  from  Sora  !  dark  olive  complexions  and  beautiful 


286  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

oval  faces.  The  women  look  fantastic,  like  the  Arab  women  ;  they  are 
adorned  with  strings  of  coral  or  golden  chains  round  their  necks,  and 
heavy  gold  earrings  ;  their  heads  are  covered  with  white  or  brown  ker- 
chiefs, with  long  fringes,  which  hang  down  upon  the  neck  like  a  ma- 
donna's veil :  they  wear  white  chemisettes  quite  loose  though  folded  in 


Contadina,  Valley  of  the  Sacco. 

innumerable  plaits,  and  over  these  a  low,  dark  red  bodice.  The  skirt  is 
short,  of  a  bright  red  or  blue  colour,  with  a  yellow  border.  And  what 
large  dark  eyes,  under  black,  strongly  marked  eyebrows  ! 

"The  pilgrims  of  Ceccano  I     The  women  wearing  red  bodices  with 
long  aprons  of  the  same  colour,  white  kerchiefs  on  their  heads  with  long 


THE  GENAZZANO  PILGRIMAGE.  287 

ends  hanging  down  behind,  and  sandals.   The  men  in  pointed  hats,  witii 
red  jackets,  and  a  girdle  round  the  waist,  twisted  of  bright  ribbon. 

•'  Pilgrims  from  Pontecorvo !  The  women  in  dark  red  dresses 
beautifully  ornamented  ;  with  a  red  head-dress;  beautiful  and  majestic. 

"  Pilgrims  from  Filettino  :  black  velvet  bodices,  a  most  simple  dress, 
quiet  and  graceful. 

*'  Ciociari !  The  men  and  women  of  the  sandal  land  !  Perhaps 
from  some  place  near  Ferentino,  or  farther  away,  from  the  Neapolitan 
boundaries  of  the  Liris  and  the  Melfa.  It  is  a  land  of  beautiful  and  wild 
mountains,  which  extends  from  Ferentino  far  into  the  Neapolitan  terri- 
tory. There  the  people  wear  the  Ciocia,  a  very  simple  covering  for  the 
foot,  from  which  the  country  is  called  Ciociaria.  I  found  this  covering 
for  the  foot  in  use  near  Anagni.  One  more  primitive  certainly  cannot 
be  found,  perhaps  one  might  also  say  there  is  none  more  comfortable. 
It  certainly  made  me  envy  the  Ciociari.  The  shoe  is  simply  formed  of 
a  square  piece  of  ass  or  horse  skin.  Holes  are  made  in  this  skin,  through 
which  a  string  is  passed,  and  this  parchment  is  so  tied  round  the  foot 
that  it  forms  itself  to  the  shape  of  the  foot.  The  leg  is  swathed  up  to 
the  knee  with  coarse  grey  linen,  bound  round  many  times  with  string  or 
thread.  Thus  the  Ciociaro  moves  freely  and  comfortably  across  the 
fields,  and  over  the  rocks,  whenever  he  goes  to  dig  the  ground  ('zappar 
la  terra'),  or  drives  his  sheep  and  goats,  as  a  shepherd  with  bag-pipes, 
dressed  in  a  short  grey  cloak,  or  clothed  in  skins.  These  sandals  are 
classical,  and  Diogenes  would  have  worn  them  if  he  had  not  gone  bare- 
foot ;  and  Chrysippus  or  Epictetus  might  have  praised  them  in  a  treatise 
on  the  few  needs  of  wise  men.  If  these  shoes  are  well  arranged,  and  the 
linen  leggings  new,  they  look  well,  but  very  bad  and  beggarly  when  they 
are  old  and  ragged  ;  and  as  this  is  generally  the  case,  it  has  given  the 
sandal  folk  a  character  of  ragged  poverty,  and  their  name  is  despised 
and  even  used  as  a  word  of  reproach.  One  day,  when  a  man  of  San 
Vito  was  showing  me  the  beautiful  panorama  of  the  Campagna,  he  said 
to  me,  '  See,  sir,  there  lies  the  Ciociaria ! '  and  he  smiled  with  a  look 
of  lofty  contempt. 

"The  Ciociari  wear  bright  red  vests,  and  pointed  black  felt  hats, 
which  seldom  lack  a  gay  feather,  a  bow,  or  a  flower.  I  found  among 
them,  especially  in  the  Campagna  of  Rome,  a  remarkable  number  of 
men  with  fair  hair  and  blue  eyes  ;  they  wear  their  hair  cut  short  behind, 
like  the  Prussian  Landwehr,  but  let  it  hang  down  in  long  locks  from  the 
temples.  Hang  a  ragged  grey  waterproof  cloak  or  a  black  or  wliite 
sheepskin  on  the  Ciociaro,  and  we  have  our  sandal  man  complete ;  but 
we  will  not  give  him  a  gun  in  his  hand,  or  he  will  fall  upon  us  as  a  rob- 
ber in  the  pass  of  Ceprano,  crying  out,  'faccia  in  terra,'  and  will  empty 


288  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

our  pockets  with  astonishing  agility.  The  women  also  wear  the  sandals, 
a  short  gay  skirt,  a  bright  striped  apron,  a  white  or  a  red  woollen  ker- 
chief on  the  head,  and  lastly  the  busto,  the  principal  article  of  female 
dress  throughout  the  whole  of  Latium.  This  is  the  bodice  of  stiffly- 
quilted  linen,  hard  as  a  saddle,  broad  and  high,  with  epaulets  resting  on 
the  shoulders.  It  forms  a  support  to  the  breast,  it  seems  like  a  bulwark 
to  shield  virtue ;  like  a  firm  breast-plate  it  surrounds  the  bosom  ;  yet  it 
is  loose,  and  stands  out,  so  that  it  serves  at  the  same  time  as  a  pocket." 
~—  Gregorovius. 

The  town  of  Genazzano  was  long  a  fortress  of  the 
Colonnas,  and  was  the  place  where  Stefano  Colonna  was 
murdered  in  1438.  The  only  pope  given  by  the  great 
Colonna  family  to  Rome  was  born  at  Genazzano.  This  was 
Oddone  Colonna,  elected  at  Constance  in  141 7  as  Martin 
V.  while  two  other  popes  were  already  in  existence.  As 
sovereign  he  continued  to  be  devoted  to  his  native  place, 
where  he  built  churches  and  enlarged  the  palace  of  his 
family,  which  is  now  neglected  and  fast  falling  into  decay. 
In  its  decline  it  is  very  picturesque,  and  is  supplied  with 
water  by  a  half-mined  aqueduct,  along  which  there  is  a  walk 
leading  to  the  deserted  convent  of  San  Pio.  The  whole 
population  is  occupied  in  the  cultivation  of  the  hill-side 
vineyards. 

Continuing  our  way  along  the  valley,  we  see  that  a  hill- 
top in  front  of  us  is  occupied  by  a  mountain-town,  sur- 
rounded with  strong,  sixteenth-century  fortifications.  This  is 
Paliano,  another  important  stronghold  of  the  Colonnas. 
Prospero  Colonna  defended  it  against  Sixtus  IV.  In  1556 
Paul  IV.  took  it  away  from  the  Colonnas,  and  gave  it  to  his 
own  nephew  Giovanni  Caraffa,  for  whom  it  was  raised  into  a 
principality. 

"Declaring  that  the  Colonnas,  'those  incorrigible  rebels  against  God 
and  the  Church,'  however  frequently  deprived  of  their  castles,  had 


OLEVANO.  289 

always  managed  to  regain  them,  Paul  IV.  resolved  that  this  should  be 
amended  ;  he  would  give  those  fortresses  to  vassals  who  would  know 
how  to  hold  them.  Thereupon  he  divided  the  possessions  of  the  house 
of  Colonna  among  his  nephews,  making  the  elder  Duke  of  Paliano, 
and  the  younger  Marquis  of  Montebello.  The  cardinals  remained 
silent  when  he  announced  these  purposes  in  the  assembly  ;  they  bent 
down  their  heads  and  fixed  their  eyes  to  the  earth." — Ranke  s  History 
of  the  Popes. 

Only  fifteen  years  after,  however,  upon  the  victory  of  Marc- 
Antonio  Colonna  over  the  Turks  at  Lepanto,  Paliano  was 
restored  to  its  original  owners,  and  has  since  given  the  title 
of  Duca  di  Paliano  to  the  head  of  their  house. 

A  long  ascent  now  brings  us  to  Olevano,  of  the  beauty  of 
which  one  has  no  idea  till  one  really  arrives,  but  it  is  per- 
haps the  most  picturesque  place  of  this  wonderful  district. 
Passing  from  the  rough  stone  houses  with  their  crumbling 
staircases  of  rock,  and  from  the  stony  ways  full  of  pigs  and 
children,  a  gate  admits  us  to  a  high  olive  garden,  full  of 
beans  and  corn,  where  a  winding  path  leads  to  a  kind  of 
large  farm-house  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  with  an  outside  loggia 
and  staircase.  And  this  is  the  famous  inn  of  Olevano,  the 
Albergo  degli  Artisti.  It  is  a  perfect  artist's  paradise.  Its 
rooms  are  homely,  but  are  cleanliness  itself.  They  all  de- 
bouch from  a  common  sitting-room,  surrounded  by  queer 
old  portraits  and  with  a  grand  old  chair,  which  may 
have  been  that  of  Cardinal  Scipio  Borghese,  whose  picture 
hangs  over  the  fire-place.  The  pleasant  honest  mistress, 
Pepina  Baldi,  with  her  husband  Nino,  are  really  charming 
specimens  of  respectable  well-to-do  Italians  of  the  lower 
orders,  full  of  simple  kindnesses  and  courtesies,  and  frank- 
ness and  openness  itself.  Their  handsome  boys  and  girls 
have  served  as  voluntary  models  to  half  the  artists  in 
VOL.  I.  19 


290 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


Rome  when  they  have  been  staying  here;  and  many 
sketches  of  the  family  by  famous  hands,  which  would 
fetch  enormous  prices  in  Paris  or  London,  hang  upon  the 
walls,  where  they  have  been  left  as  thank-offerings  with  the 
mother.  For  the  entertainment  of  guests  too  we  have  a 
collection  of  albums,  which  any  sovereign  might  envy,  and 
than  which  few  possess  any  more  valuable,  for  every  artist  who 
has  staid  here  has  left  his  portrait,  by  his  own  hand  or  that 
of  a  friend,  and  the  collection  is  really  wonderful,  of  the 
natives  of  every  country  in  Europe,  from  the  delicate  hand  of 
our  English  Leighton  to  that  of  the  least  known  student  of 
the  Via  Margutta.  But  still  the  greatest  charm  of  Casa 
Baldi  is  its  view.  One  looks  along  the  whole  of  the 
Hernican  range,  tossed  above  into  every  variety  of  peak,  and 
clothed  on  its  lower  slopes  with  corn  and  fruit-trees,  olives 
and  cypresses,  from  which  Anagni  and  Ferentino  and 
Frosinone  look  across  the  valley  to  the  more  distant 
Volscians,  also  sprinkled  with  rock-throned  villages.  In 
the  middle  distance  Paliano  watches  the  valley  from  a  steep 
elevated  ridge.     Deep  below  rises  the  town  of  Olevano, 


Olevano. 


with  yellow-roofed  houses,    weather-stained,  machicolated, 
arch-adorned,   rising    from   rocks    overhung   with  ivy  and 


OLEVANO,  291 

flowers,  and  leading  up  to  the  jagged  walls  and  tower  of  a 
ruined  castle.  Behind  the  to^vn  are  the  wild  mountains  of 
the  Sabina,  with  Civitella,  Capranica,  San  Vito,  and  Rocca 
di  Cavi  perched  upon  different  heights,  and  on  the  furthest 
of  all  the  curious  sanctuary  and  the  Polish  convent  of  Men- 
torella,  and  round  the  corner  of  this  range  we  catch  a 
glimpse  of  the  Alban  hills  projecting  over  the  purple 
Campagna. 

"  There  are  many  places  on  the  sunny  heights,  or  in  the  dark  recesses 
of  the  mountains  ;  castles,  monasteries,  and  towns,  rising  in  the  clear 
air — all  seems  to  rest  in  a  romantic  quietude.  The  outlines  of  the  moun- 
tains are  cut  with  enchanting  clearness  and  sharpness  upon  the  pure 
blue  of  the  sky  ;  one  longs  to  cross  over,  to  wander  amongst  the  shining 
crags  and  soft  plains  in  the  freshness  of  that  high  and  heavenly  region. 
Above  the  hollows  of  the  Serra,  rises,  here  and  there,  a  snow-capped 
mountain,  violet-tinted,  out  of  the  wilds  of  the  Abruzzi,  suggesting  still 
another  distance  ;  in  the  background  mountain-peaks  rise  further  and 
further  out  of  the  silvery  mists,  shadowy,  many-formed,  obelisk-like, 
dome-like,  beckoning  the  spirit  onwards  into  the  unknown  regions  of 
the  sandal-land,  or  to  the  shore  of  the  lovely  Liris." — Gregorovius. 

The  name  of  Olevano  carries  us  back  pleasantly  into  the 
mediaeval  times,  when  it  was  compelled  to  pay  a  tax  called 
Olibanuniy  for  purchasing  incense  for  the  churches  of  the 
p'-ovince.  Then  the  noble  family  of  Frangipani,  who 
derived  their  glorious  name  of  "  Bread-breakers  "  from  their 
vast  charities  during  a  famine,  resided  in  its  fortress.  From 
them  it  passed  by  exchange  to  the  Benedictine  monks  of 
Subiaco,  by  whom  it  was  sold  in  the  13th  century  to  the 
Colonnas,  who  built  the  present  castle  and  guarded  it  through 
weal  and  woe  for  four  hundred  years,  when  it  was  pur- 
chased by  the  Borgheses,  who  hold  it  still. 

The  most  remarkable  excursion  which  can  be  made  from 
Olevano  is  that  to  Guadagnolo,  a  rock  4000  feet  high,  with  a 


292  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

village  curiously  wedged  in  between  high  rocks,  which  sur- 
round and  conceal  it  on  every  side,  as  with  a  natural  wall. 
A  mile  and  a  half  below  the  town,  are  the  hermitage 
and  church  oi  La  Mefitorella^  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice, 
jutting  out  over  the  valley  of  the  Girano.  Here,  before  he 
went  to  Subiaco,  S,  Benedict  lived  in  the  sixth  century,  in  a 
cave  at  the  foot  of  the  rock.  A  tradition  of  far  earlier  date 
(during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Trajan)  represents  the  crag 
of  La  Mentorella  as  that  where  the  vision  of  a  white  deer, 
with  a  crucifix  between  his  horns,  led  to  the  conversion  of  S. 
Eustace. 

"S.  Eustace  was  a  Roman  soldier,  and  captain  of  the  guard  to  the 
Emperor  Trajan.  His  name  before  his  conversion  was  Placidus,  and  he 
had  a  beautifal  wife  and  two  sons,  and  lived  with  great  magnificence, 
practising  all  the  heathen  virtues,  particularly  those  of  loyalty  to  his 
sovereign  and  charity  to  the  poor.  He  was  also  a  great  lover  of  the 
chase,  spending  much  of  his  time  in  that  noble  diversion. 

"  One  day  while  hunting  in  the  forest,  he  saw  before  him  a  white  stag, 
of  marvellous  beauty,  and  he  pursued  it  eagerly,  and  the  stag  fled  before 
him,  and  ascended  a  high  rock.  Then  Placidus,  looking  up,  beheld, 
between  the  horns  of  the  stag,  a  cross  of  radiant  light,  and  on  it  the 
image  of  the  crucified  Redeemer  ;  and  being  astonished  and  dazzled  by 
this  \  ision,  he  fell  on  his  knees,  and  a  voice  which  seemed  to  come  from 
the  crucifix  cried  to  him,  and  said,  '  Placidus  !  why  dost  thou  pursue  me  1 
I  am  Christ,  whom  thou  hast  hitherto  served  without  knowing  me.  Dost 
thou  now  believe  ? '  and  Placidus  fell  with  his  face  to  the  earth,  and 
said,  '  Lord,  I  believe ! '  and  the  voice  answered,  saying,  '  Thou  shalt 
suffer  many  tribulations  for  my  sake,  and  shalt  be  tried  by  many  tempta- 
tions ;  but  be  strong  and  of  good  courage,  and  I  will  not  forsake  thee. ' 
To  which  Placidus  replied,  '  Lord,  I  am  content.  Do  thou  give  me 
patience  to  suffer  ! '  And  when  he  looked  up  again  the  wondrous  vision 
had  departed.  Then  he  arose  and  retui-ned  to  his  house,  and  the  next 
day  he  and  his  wife  and  his  two  sons  were  baptized,  and  he  took  the 
name  of  Eustace." — yameson's  Legendary  Art. 

A  flight  of  stairs,  which  troops  of  pilgrims  devoutly  ascend 
upon  their  knees  on  the  festa  of  the  twenty-ninth  of  Septem- 


LA  MENTORELLA.  293 

ber,  leads  to  the  campanile,  which  is  surmounted  by  a  pair 
of  antlers,  like  those  of  the  portico  of  the  church  of  S.  Eus- 
tachio  at  Rome,  commemorating  his  conversion.  The  festa 
of  La  Mentorella  is  one  of  the  most  romantic  in  Italy.  The 
peasants  come  by  the  steep  mountain-paths  chaunting 
litanies,  and  each  carrying  a  stone  which  they  add  to  a  great 
commemorative  pile.  They  spend  the  night  in  groups, 
sleeping  round  fires  lighted  on  these  wild  crags,  and  those 
who  have  been  present  describe  the  scene  as  quite  unrivalled 
in  its  weird  picturesqueness — the  brilliant  costumes  illumin- 
ated by  the  fire-light  and  backed  by  the  savage  precipices 
which  overhang  the  Girano  and  Siciliano,  and  the  rude 
chaunts  echoing  amid  the  rocks  under  the  starlit  sky.  The 
name  of  Mentorella  comes  from  Wultvilla  or  Wulturela,  the 
ancient  name  of  the  mountain.  The  gothic  chapel  which 
now  exists,  is  of  the  tenth  century,  but  a  church  certainly 
existed  here  as  early  as  a.d.  594,  when  it  was  bestowed  upon 
the  abbot  of  Subiaco  by  Gregory  I.  In  a.d.  958,  the  moun- 
tain of  Wulturela  with  its  church,  dedicated  to  Sta.  ^Maria, 
belonged  to  S.  Gregorio  in  Rome,  but  the  building  appears 
to  have  been  deserted  in  the  fourteenth  century,  though  it 
was  restored  by  the  Emperor  Leopold  in  1660. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 


SUBIACO. 


(Subiaco  is  26  miles  from  Tivoli.  A  diligence  runs  daily.  There  is  a 
very  tolerable  inn,  La  Fernice, — pension,  5  francs  a  day — but  passing 
travellers  must  arrange  their  prices  beforehand.) 

THE  road  from  Olevano  to  Subiaco  passes  through  a 
dismal  bare  rocky  district,  but  is  a  fine  specimen  of 
engineering,  being  one  of  the  many  excellent  mountain-roads, 
constructed  under  Pius  IX.  A  few  miles  before  reaching 
Subiaco,  we  skirt  a  lake,  which  is  probably  one  of  the  Sim- 
briviae  Aquae. 

**  Quique  Anienis  habent  ripas,  gelidoque  rigantur 
Simbrivio,  rastrisque  domant  ^quicula  rura." 

Sil.  Ital.  viii.  370. 

The  three  pools  called  Simbrivii  Lacus  were   made  by 

Nero  by  the  damming  up  of  the  Anio.      Here  he  fished  for 

trout  with  a  golden  net,  and  here  he  built  the  mountain-villa 

to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Sublacum — under  the  lake 

— which  still  exists  in  Subiaco. 

**  Avoir  une  villa  dans  les  montagnes  du  pays  des  ^ques,  c'etait  pour 
Neron  ce  que  serait  pour  un  moderne  la  fantaisie  d'un  chalet  en  Suisse." 
— Ampere,  Emp.  Rom.  ii.  62. 

While  Nero  was  residing  here  the  conspiracies  were  form- 
ing which  led  to  his  overthrow,  and  here  he  was  warned  of 


VILLA  OF  NERO.  295 

his  fate  by  a  portent  most  terrible  in  those  times  of  omens, 
when  his  drinking-cup  was  shivered  in  his  hand  by  Hght- 
ning  whilst  he  was  seated  at  a  banquet  near  the  lake,  a  pre- 
sage which  seized  upon  his  mind  with  appalling  effect.  That 
very  day  he  had  bathed  in  the  aqueduct  of  the  Aqua  Mar- 
cia,  that  all  his  people  might  enjoy  the  privilege  of  drink- 
ing water  that  had  been  thus  defiled.*  The  choice  of  his 
villa  amid  the  ^quian  mountains  shows  that,  in  spite  of  all 
his  monstrosities,  Nero  must  have  been  as  great  a  connois- 
seur of  the  beauties  of  nature  as  of  art,  and  for  centuries  the 
glorious  gorge  through  which  the  Anio  foams  beneath  its 
ruins,  between  tremendous  crags  clothed  with  evergreens 
and  flowers,  has  been  a  sanctuary  to  half  the  poets  and 
painters  in  the  world. 

Hither,  four  centuries  after  the  time  of  Nero,  when  the 
recollection  of  his  orgies  had  given  place  to  silence  and 
solitude,  a  young  patrician,  sprung  from  the  noble  family  of 
the  Anicii,  which  gave  Gregory  the  Gre^t  to  the  Church, 
and  many  other  saints  to  the  sacred  calendar,  fled  from  the 
seductions  of  the  capital,  to  seek  repose  for  his  soul,  with 
God  alone  as  his  companion.  The  name  of  the  fugitive  was 
Benedictus,  or  "  the  blessed  one."  He  was  only  fourteen 
when-  he  renounced  his  fortune,  his  family,  and  the 
world.  It  was  to  Mentorella  that  he  first  fled,  and  thither 
he  was  followed  by  his  faithful  nurse  Cyrilla,  who  could  not 
bear  to  think  that  the  child  of  her  affections  was  alone  and 
uncared  for,  who  begged  for  him,  and  prepared  the  small 
modicum  of  food  which  he  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  take. 
Some  neighbour  had  lent  her  a  stone  sieve  to  make  bread, 

•  Claudius  first  made  an  aqueduct  to  bring  to  Rome  the  water  of  two  founuins 
called  Curtius  and  Caeruleus,  in  the  hills  above  Sublacum. 


296  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

after  the  manner  of  the  mountain  district,  she  let  it  fall  out 
of  her  hands,  and  it  was  broken  to  pieces.  Moved  by  her 
distress,  Benedict  prayed  over  the  fragments,  and  they  are 
said  to  have  been  instantly  joined  together.  This  was 
his  first  miracle.  Terrified  at  the  excitement  it  caused,  and 
at  seeing  the  sieve  hung  up  in  the  village  church  as  a  relic, 
Benedict  evaded  the  solicitude  of  his  nurse,  and  escaped  un- 
seen by  any  one  to  the  gorge  of  Subiaco,  where  he  found 
(c.  480)  a  cave  in  the  rocks  above  the  falls  of  the  Anio,  into 
which  not  even  a  ray  of  the  sun  could  penetrate.  Here  he 
lived,  his  hiding-place  unknown  to  any  one,  except  to 
Romanus,  a  monk  who  dwelt  amid  a  colony  of  anchorites 
founded  by  S.  Clement  on  the  ruins  of  Nero's  villa.  By 
him  he  was  provided  with  a  gannent  made  of  the  skin 
of  a  beast,  and  each  day  Romanus  let  down  to  him  from  the 
top  of  the  rock  the  half  of  his  daily  loaf,  giving  him  notice 
of  its  approach  by  the  ringing  of  a  bell  suspended  to  the 
same  rope  with  the  food.  It  is  said  that  when  the  devil 
wished  to  make  himself  particularly  disagreeable  to  Benedict 
he  would  cut  the  cord  which  supplied  him.  His  hiding- 
place  was  discovered  by  a  miracle.  A  village  priest  seated 
at  a  banquet  of  Easter  luxuries  had  a  revelation  that  while 
he  was  thus  feasting  a  servant  of  God  was  pining  with  hun- 
ger, and  his  steps  were  miraculously  directed  to  the  hermit- 
age. Benedict  refused  to  eat  the  delicate  food,  until  con- 
vinced that  it  was  indeed  the  festival  of  Easter.  The  priest 
told  what  he  had  seen  to  the  shepherds,  who,  while  follow- 
ing their  goats  along  one  of  the  tiny  pathlets  which  may  still 
be  seen  on  the  face  of  these  mountains,  had  seen  a  strange 
creature  with  unkempt  hair,  and  nails  like  claws,  and  taking 
it  for  a  wild  beast,  had  fled  from  it  in  terror.     They  were 


THE  TWELVE  MONASTERIES.  297 

now  re-assured  by  his  gentle  words,  and  from  that  day,  while 
they  watched  their  flocks,  he  began  to  instil  into  their  rude 
and  ignorant  minds  the  light  of  the  Christian  faith.  Gra- 
dually their  report  became  spread  abroad,  pilgrims  flocked 
from  all  quarters  to  the  valley,  and  through  the  disciples  who 
gathered  round  Benedict,  this  desolate  ravine  became  the 
cradle  of  monastic  life  in  the  West. 

"The  life  of  Benedict,  from  infancy  to  death,  is  the  most  perfect 
illustration  of  the  motives  which  then  worked  upon  the  mind  of  man. 
In  him  meet  and  combine  together  all  those  influences  which  almost 
divided  mankind  into  recluses  or  coenobites,  and  those  who  pursued  an 
active  life  ;  as  well  as  all  the  effects,  in  his  case  the  best  effects,  pro- 
duced by  this  phasis  of  human  thought  and  feeling.  Benedict,  it  was 
said,  was  born  at  that  time,  like  a  sun  to  dispel  the  Cimmerian  dark- 
ness which  brooded  over  Christendom,  and  to  revive  the  expiring  spirit 
of  monasticism.  His  age  acknowledged  Benedict  as  the  perfect  type  of 
the  highest  religion,  and  Benedict  impersonated  his  age. 

"  How  perfectly  the  whole  atmosphere  was  then  impregnated  with  an 
inexhaustible  yearning  for  the  supernatural,  appears  from  the  ardour 
with  which  the  monastic  passions  were  indulged  at  the  earliest  age. 
Children  were  nursed  and  trained  to  expect  at  every  instant  more  than 
human  interferences ;  their  young  energies  had  ever  before  them  ex- 
amples of  asceticism,  to  which  it  was  the  glory,  the  true  felicity  of  life, 
to  aspire.  The  thoughtful  child  had  all  his  mind  thus  pre-occupied  ; 
he  was  early,  it  might  almost  seem  intuitively,  trained  to  this  course  of 
life  ;  wherever  there  was  gentleness,  modesty,  the  timidity  of  young 
passion,  repugnance  to  vice,  an  imaginative  temperament,  a  conscious- 
ness of  unfitness  to  wrestle  with  the  rough  realities  of  life,  the  way  lay 
invitingly  open — the  difficult,  it  is  true,  and  painful,  but  direct  and  un- 
erring way  to  heaven.  It  lay  through  perils,  but  was  made  attractive 
by  perpetual  wonders  ;  it  was  awful,  but  in  its  aw  fulness  lay  its  power 
over  the  young  mind.  It  learned  to  trample  down  that  last  bond  which 
united  the  child  to  common  humanity,  filial  reverence ;  the  fond  and 
mysterious  attachment  of  the  child  and  the  mother,  the  inborn  reverence 
of  the  son  to  the  father." — Miltnan's  Latin  Christianity. 

Twelve  monasteries  speedily  arose  amid  these  peaks  and 
gorges,  each  only  containing  twelve  monks,  for  it  was  an  idea 


298  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

of  Benedict  that  a  larger  number  led  to  idleness  and  neglect 
The  names  of  several  of  these  institutions  recall  their 
romantic  situations,  and  they  were  the  scenes  of  the  miracles 
attributed  to  the  founder  and  his  disciples.  5.  Clemente 
della  Vigna  was  the  place  whither  Maurus  and  Placidus  were 
brought  to  Benedict  by  their  parents.  It  was  situated  near 
one  of  the  lakes,  and  it  was  there  that  the  sickle  of  a  Gothic 
monk,  which  he  dropped  into  the  water  while  cutting  weeds 
upon  the  bank,  swam  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  Maurus, 
who  summoned  it  by  holding  the  wooden  handle  over  the 
waves.  This  monastery  was  entirely  destroyed  by  the  earth- 
quake of  1 216.  S.  S.  Cosmo  and  Damian  was  the  next  to  be 
built,  the  monastery  which  was  afterwards  dedicated  to 
Scholastica.  S.  Biagio  (S.  Blaise)  was  the  home  of  the 
monk  Romanus,  the  friend  of  Benedict.  Its  church  wa> 
consecrated  in  iioo  by  Manfred,  Bishop  of  Tivoli.  .S*. 
Giovanni  delV  Acqua  was  so  called  because  there,  as  well  as 
in  two  other  houses,  water  is  said  to  have  burst  forth  from 
the  arid  rock  to  supply  the  thirsting  monks,  in  answer  to  the 
prayers  of  Benedict.*  Santa  Maria  de  Marebotta  was 
afterwards  called  .S.  Lorenzo  in  honour  of  the  holy  monk  S. 
Ijorenzo  Loricato  who  lived  there  as  a  hermit,  in  the  most 
severe  austerity,  from  1209  to  1243.  At  Sanf  Angelo, 
Benedict  saw  the  devil,  in  the  form  of  a  black  boy,  leading 
away  a  monk,  who  had  neglected  to  attend  properly  the  serv- 
ices of  the  Church.  In  S.  Victor  at  the  foot  of  the  Mountain 
lived  the  monk  who  brought  the  Easter  food  to  Benedict 
when  he  was  starving  in  the  cave.  S.  Andre^v^  or  Eternal 
Life,  was  ruined  in  a  Lombard  invasion.  S.  Michael  the 
Archangel  was  built  by  Benedict  beneath  the  Sacro  Speco, 

*  This  subject  is  represented  in  the  frescoes  of  Spinello  at  San  Miniato. 


APPROACH  TO  THE  MONASTERIES.  299 

but  has  long  since  disappeared.  Sanf  Angela  di  Trei'i  stood 
near  Sta.  Scholastica  and  was  incorporated  with  it.  S. 
Girolamo  was  rebuilt  as  late  as  1387  in  accordance  with  a 
bull  of  Urban  VI.  S.  Donato  has  entirely  disappeared. 
Gradually  all  these  societies  became  incorporated  in  the 
great  monastery  dedicated  to  Scholastica,  the  holy  sister  of 
Benedict,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  mother  house  of  the 
whole  Order,  and  which  was  governed  by  a  regular  abbot 
chosen  by  the  General  Chapter. 

The  visits  of  the  numerous  Popes  who  have  come  hither 
form  landmarks  in  the  story  of  the  place.  In  853  Leo  IV., 
summoned  by  the  Abbot  Peter,  came  to  consecrate  the 
altars  of  the  Sacro  Speco.  In  981  Benedict  VII.  came  to 
consecrate  Sta.  Scholastica.  In  1052  Leo  IX.  was  sum- 
moned to  turn  out  a  monk  who  had  unlawfully  seized  the 
abbacy — and  issued  a  bull  appointing  Sta.  Scholastica 
"  Caput  omnium  monasteriorum  per  Italiam  constitutorum." 
In  the  thirteenth  century  the  privileges  of  the  monastery 
were  greatly  augmented  by  Alexander  IV.,  who  had  lived 
there  as  a  simple  monk,  and  who  declared  in  his  diploma  that 
other  Benedictine  communities  had  only  to  look  to  Sta. 
Scholastica  to  receive  a  perfect  model  which  they  should 
copy.  The  same  affection  for  the  place  was  evinced  by 
Urban  V.,  who  had  also  been  a  Benedictine,  and  who 
colonized  the  monastery  with  German  monks,  to  amend  the 
morals  of  the  brethren,  which  had  then  grievous  need  of  it. 
The  last  of  a  long  series  of  papal  visits  was  that  of  Pius  IX. 
in  the  first  year  of  his  pontificate. 

The  road  which  leads  from  the  town  to  the  monasteries 
(S.  Benedetto  is  about  two  and  a  half  miles  distant)  is  beau- 
tiful,— bordered  by  ilexes  and  olives,  beneath  which  there  is 


30O  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

ever  a  carpet  of  tulips,  hyacinths,  and  anemones,  in  spring. 
Gorgeous  are  the  views  looking  back  amid  the  mountain  rifts, 
between  which  Subiaco  rises  house  above  house  with  the  great 
archiepiscopal  castle  at  the  top  of  its  rock.  The  modern 
Collegiata,  a  huge  mass  of  building,  seems  to  block  the 
valley,  standing  almost  over  the  stream  of  the  Anio,  and 
consisting  of  a  church  and  palace  built  by  Pius  VI.,  when 
Cardinal  Bishop  of  Subiaco, — being  necessary,  because  the 
abbots  of  Santa  Scholastica  had  been  bishops  also,  until  the 
see  was  united  with  a  cardinalate.  The  nearer  hills  are 
all  aglow  with  the  richest  vegetation,  olives,  chestnuts,  and 
corn,  and  here  and  there  the  tall  spire  of  a  cypress.  The 
air  is  scented  by  the  sweet  box,  which  grows  upon  the  cliffs 
close  to  the  road,  and  a  freshness  always  rises  from  the  river 
which  dashes  wildly  through  the  abyss  of  green-  beneath, 
rejoicing  to  be  freed  from  its  imprisonment  in  the  walls  of 
cliff  beneath  S.  Scholastica.  Here  a  ruined  gothic  chapel 
stands  amid  thickets  of  flowers,  there  a  gaily  painted  shrine, 
very  dear  to  artists,  surmounts  the  tufa  rocks. 

When  we  reach  the  bridge  called  ''  Ponte  S.  Mauro,"  by 
which  the  road  from  Olevano  crosses  the  Anio  at  a  great 
height,  a  carriage  can  go  no  further,  and  the  footpath  which 
ascends  to  the  great  monasteries  turns  off  up  the  gorge  to 
the  left.  Little  chapels  at  intervals  mark  the  rocky  way, 
which  is  overhung  by  wild  laburnum  and  coronilla,  and 
fringed  with  saxifrage  and  cyclamen.  The  first  of  these 
chapels  commemorates  an  interesting  mediaeval  story  in 
which  Benedict  bore  a  share.  Amongst  those  who  came 
hither  from  Rome  to  share  his  teaching,  were  two  Roman 
senators  of  high  rank,  Anicius  and  Tertullus,  who  brought 
with    them   their   sons    xMaurus   and   Placidus,    entreating 


302  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

him  to  bring  them  up  in  the  way  of  Life.  MauruF  was 
then  twelve  years  old  and  Placidus  only  five.  One  day  (in 
528)  the  child  Placidus  fell  into  the  Anio  below  this  cliff. 
Benedict,  seeing  him  fall,  called  to  Maurus  to  assist  him, 
and  he,  walking  upon  the  water,  caught  the  drowning  boy  by 
the  hair,  and  dragged  him  out.  His  safety  was  followed  by 
a  contest  of  humility  between  the  pupil  and  master.  Maurus 
attributed  it  to  the  holiness  of  Benedict,  Benedict  to  the 
self-devotion  of  Maurus ;  Placidus  decided  the  question  by 
saying  that  he  had  seen  the  sheepskin-coat  of  Benedict 
hovering  over  him  in  the  water. 

Long  before  we  reach  it,  the  grandly  toned  bell  of  Santa 
Sckoiastica,  echoing  amid  the  rocks,  gives  notice  of  the 
approach  to  a  great  sanctuary.  Nothing  can  exceed  the 
solemn  grandeur  of  its  situation,  perched  upon  huge  crags, 
and  with  the  roaring  river  below.  The  monastery  v/as 
founded  in  the  fifth  century  by  the  Abbot  Honoratus,  the 
sainted  successor  of  Benedict,  and  though  repeatedly  attack- 
ed and  burnt  by  the  Lombards,  the  Saracens,  and  by  its 
own  neighbours,  it  always  rose  again  from  its  ashes  more 
splendid  than  ever.  In  981  it  was  rebuilt  from  the  ground 
under  Benedict  VIL,  and  dedicated  to  S.  Benedict  and  his 
holy  sister  Scholastica  From  this  time  rich  donations  were 
constantly  made,  and  lands  were  added  to  its  territory,  till, 
in  HOC,  its  abbots  became  princes,  possessed  of  many  cas- 
tles and  fortresses,  and  with  a  right  of  supreme  jurisdiction 
over  their  vassals.  They  did  not  hesitate  to  appear  person- 
ally in  the  battle-fields  of  that  troubled  time,  in  which  the 
Bishops  of  TivoH,  Anagni,  and  Palestrina  were  also  fre- 
quently seen.  Many  curious  records  remain  of  their  savage 
administration  of  justice.     In  the  time  of  the  Gliibelline 


SANTA  SCHOLASTICA.  303 

Abbot  Adhemar  (1353)  seven  monks  were  hung  up  by  their 
feet,  and  fires  lighted  under  their  heads.  In  1454  their 
severities  led  to  a  rebellion  in  which  the  convent  was 
stormed  and  many  of  the  monks  massacred.  Calistus  III. 
made  the  Abbot  a  Cardinal  Commendatory,  and  the  first 
who  bore  this  title  was  the  Spanish  Torquemada,  under 
whose  rule,  in  1464,  tiie  famous  Sweynheim  and  Pannartz 
established  here  the  first  printing-press  in  Italy,  and  pub- 
lished from  hence  "  Lactantius  de  divinis  institutionibus  ; " 
"Cicero  de  Oratore,"  and,  in  1467,  "  Augustinus  de  Civitate 
Dei."  In  the  same  year,  however,  a  quarrel  with  the  monks 
drove  them  to  Rome,  where  they  established  themselves  in 
the  Massimo  Palace.  It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  the 
first  printing-press  in  England  was  also  established  in  a 
Benedictine  Abbey — that  of  Westminster. 

Torquemada  was  succeeded  as  abbot  by  Rodrigo  Borgia, 
afterwards  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  and  in  his  time  Lucrezia 
Borgia  often  resided  in  the  castle-palace,  and  Caesar  came 
hither  to  hunt.  Under  the  Abbot  Pompeo  Colonna,  Julius 
II.  united  the  abbacy  with  that  of  Farfa  ;  in  15 14,  Leo  X. 
joined  it  to  that  of  Monte  Cassino.  After  this  it  remained 
for  116  years  in  the  hands  of  the  Colonnas,  and  a  memorial 
of  the  way  in  which  they  held  their  own  against  the  Popes 
may  be  seen  in  the  papal  banner  which  fell  into  their  hands 
in  battle,  and  which  still  hangs  in  the  convent  church. 

From  the  middle  of  the  last  century  the  great  power  of  the 
abbots  of  S.  Scholastica  began  to  decline,  but  until  the  late 
suppression  the  monastery  remained  one  of  the  richest  and 
most  influential  in  Italy,  and  it  continued  to  own  no  less 
than  sixteen  towns  and  villages,  viz.  Subiaco,  Trevi,  Jenna, 
Cervara,  Camerata,  Marano,  Agosta,  Rocca  di  Canterano, 


304  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Canterano,  "Rocca  di  Mezzo,  Cerreto,  Rocca  cli  Santo  Stefano, 
Civitella,  Rojate,  Asile,  and  Ponza. 

The  front  of  S.  Scholastica  is  modern,  but  its  tower  dates 
from  1053,  when  it  was  built  by  the  Abbot  Humbert. 
The  most  interesting  parts  of  the  building  are  its  three 
cloisters.  The  first,  which  only  dates  from  the  seventeenth 
century,  has  its  arcades  decorated  with  frescoes  of  papal  and 
royal  benefactors,  amongst  which  is  a  full-length  portrait  of 
"  James  III.,  king  of  England."  Here  is  a  curious  sarco- 
phagus with  Bacchic  ornaments.  The  second  cloister, 
which  dates  from  1052,  contains  many  beautiful  fragments  of 
Gothic  decoration,  but  its  chief  feature  is  a  richly  decorated 
arch  adorned  with  small  figures  and  spiral  columns.  A  bas- 
reUef  of  981  represents  two  animals,  apparently  a  wolf  and  a 
dog,  drinking ;  on  the  body  of  one  of  the  beasts  is  an  in- 
scription relating  to  the  dedication  of  the  church,  Dec.  4th, 
981,  by  Benedict  VII.  To  the  right  of  the  church,  we 
enter  the  third  and  smallest  cloister — "  II  chiostro  dell'  Ab- 
bate  Lando  " — built  early  in  the  thirteenth  century.  It  is 
surrounded  by  a  beautiful  arcade  of  double  pillars  like  those 
at  the  Lateran,  and  has  an  inscription  in  mosaic,  the  work 
of  the  famous  Cosmo  Cosmati  and  his  two  sons,  Luca  and 
Jacopo,  to  whom  are  due  the  beautiful  decorations  in  the 
cloister  of  the  Benedicrme  convv°ni  m  S.  Paolo  at  Rome  : — • 

*'  Cosmus  et  Filii  Lucas  et  Jacobus  alter 
Romani  Gives  in  Maniioris  arte  periti 
Hoc  opus  explerunt  Abbatis  tempore  Landi." 

In  the  porch  of  the  church  is  an  interesting  old  Giottesque 
picture  and  the  capital  of  a  Corinthian  column  attesting  the 
presence  of  a  temple  on  this  site.  The  interior,  though 
modern,    is    not   unimposing.     S.    Onorato  sleeps  beneath 


THE  SACRED  ILEX  GROVE.  305 

the  high  altar.  Under  his  statue  is  an  inscription  which 
recalls  the  legend  that  the  translation  of  his  beloved  master 
Benedict  into  the  better  world  was  miraculously  revealed 
to  him : 

**  Scandentem  hie  alter  Benedictum  vidit  in  astra  ; 
Primus  et  has  oedes  illo  abeunte  regit." 

As  the  path  from  Sta.  Scholastica  to  the  Sacro  Speco  is 
steep  and  fatiguing,  a  small  chapel  has  been  erected  at  a 
short  distance  beyond  the  larger  monastery,  where  aged  and 
infirm  persons  are  allowed  to  accomplish  their  pilgi-image. 
It  bears  the  inscription — 

**  Si  mentis  superasse  jugum  negat  segra  senectus, 
Nee  detur  ad  saeros  proeubuisse  specus, 
Siste,  tibi  eoeli  haee  aedes  seraria  pandet, 
Haec  tibi  coelestes  prodiga  fundet  opes." 

The  scenery  now  becomes  more  romantic  and  savage  at 
every  step  as  we  ascend  the  winding  path,  till,  about  half  a 
mile  further  on,  a  small  gate  admits  one  to  the  famous  im- 
memorial Ilex  Grove,  which  is  said  to  date  from  the  fifth 
century,  and  which  has  never  been  profaned  by  axe  or 
hatchet.  The  grand  old  trees  bowed  with  age,  with  twisted 
and  contorted  stems,  form  a  dense  mass  of  shadow,  grateful 
after  the  arid  rocks,  and  they  hang  in  masses  of  grey-green 
verdure  over  the  depth.  Here  and  there  the  mossy  trunks 
are  covered  with  fern,  upon  which  a  ray  of  sunlight  falls  with 
dazzling  brilliancy.  At  the  end  of  the  grove  the  path  nar- 
rows, and  a  steep  winding  stair,  just  wide  enough  to  admit 
one  person  at  a  time,  leads  to  the  platform  before  the  con- 
vent, which  up  to  that  moment  is  entirely  concealed.  It  is 
always  said  that  monks  have  known  how  to  choose  the  sites 
of  their  dwellings  better  than  any  one  else,  but  surely  no 
VOL.  I.  20 


3o6  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

situation  was  ever  equal  to  this,  to  which  they  were  led  by 
its  historical  associations.  There  is  an  old  Latin  distich 
which  says : 

"Bernardus  valles,  colles  Benedictus  amabat, 
Oppida  Franciscus,  magnas  Ignatius  urbes." 

The  name  of  the  monastery,  Sacro  Speco,  commemorates 
the  holy  cave  of  S.  Benedict.  Over  his  caverned  oratory  a 
chapel  was  erected  by  Onorato,  his  immediate  successor. 
Soon  after  another  chapel  was  built  in  the  cave  which  was 
his  dwelling,  and  the  two  were  united  by  the  sixth  abbot, 
Pietro.  In  the  eleventh  century  a  more  imposing  church 
was  constructed  by  the  Abbot  Humbert,  which  was  to  en- 
close both  the  caves — utramque  cryptam.  His  successor, 
the  Abbot  John  V.,  finished  the  church  much  as  we  now  see 
it,  for  the  present  buildings,  raised  on  arches  against  the 
rocks,  all  date  from  the  eleventh  and  the  early  part  of  the 
twelfth  centuries  ;  the  lower  church  is  of  1053. 

At  the  entrance,  the  thrilhng  interest  of  the  place  is  at 
once  recalled  to  us  by  the  inscription — "  Here  is  the  patri- 
archal cradle  of  the  monks  of  the  West  of  the  Order 
of  S.  Benedict."  The  entrance  corridor,  built  on  arches 
over  the  abyss,  has  frescoes  of  four  sainted  popes — Gre- 
gory, Agatho,  Leo,  and  another.  It  ends  in  an  ante- 
chamber with  a  painted  statue  of  S.  Benedict,  some  beauti- 
ful old  Urabrian  frescoes  of  the  Virgin  and  Child  between 
the  four  Evangelists,  and  the  lines 

*'  Do  you  ask  of  Benedict,  *  If  you  seek  for  light,  why  do  you  choose  a 
cave, 
For  a  cavern  can  give  no  light  to  him  who  prays  for  it  ?  ' 
Know  that  if  one  ray  penetrates  into  utter  darkness, 
It  gives  more  light  in  the  gloom  than  the  stars  in  the  night." 


CHURCH  OF  THE  SACRO  SPECO.  307 

We  now  reach  the  entrance  of  the  all-glorious  upper- 
church,  built  by  the  Abbot  John  V.  in  11 16,  and  adorned 
with  frescoes  under  John  VI.  in  1220. 

*'  One  seems  to  be  deeply  embued  with  the  mysterious  associations  of 
famous  days  of  old,  as  one  enters  the  first  church  from  the  gallery, 
and  finds  oneself  suddenly  in  a  little  cathedral  of  graceful  Gothic  archi- 
tecture, its  walls  and  pillars  gleaming  with  the  varied  colour  of  already 
fading  frescoes.  Unseen  monks  sing  vespers  in  the  choir,  their  power- 
ful bass  voices  echoing  solemnly  through  the  twilight  gloom  of  the 
church,  and  the  pauses  of  the  litanies  are  filled  up  by  the  louder  croak- 
ing of  ravens.  For  three  young  ravens  are  brought  up  here  in  the 
convent  in  memory  of  S.  Benedict ;  it  seems  that  the  number  of  this 
living  symbol  of  the  order  must  always  be  maintained." — Gregorovius. 

On  one  side  of  the  church  the  story  of  the  Birth  of  Christ 
is  told,  introduced  by  the  figures  of  the  prophets  who  an- 
nounced His  coming,  and  the  story  of  His  life  is  continued 
round  the  church  to  the  eastern  wall,  which  is  occupied  by 
the  history  of  the  Crucifixion.  Here,  angels  are  represented 
as  catching  the  streams  of  blood  which  flow  from  the  Divine 
wounds ;  the  soul  of  Dismas,*  the  penitent  thief,  is  received 
by  an  angel,  while  that  of  the  bad  thief  Gesmas  is  carried  off 
by  a  black  demon. 

Beneath  the  fresco  of  the  Crucifixion,  is  S.  Benedict 
throned  with  his  principal  disciples  around  him,  over  a  triple 
arch,  with  hanging  lamps,  behind  which  the  bare  rock  of  the 
cavern  is  seen.  A  representation  of  Benedict  writing  his 
Rule  in  the  cave,  has  the  inscription : 

**  Hie  mons  est  pinguis,  qui  multis  claruit  signis, 
A  Domino  missus  sanctus  fuit  Benedictus, 
Mansit  in  hac  cripta,  fuit  hie  nova  Regula  scripta, 
Quisquis  amas  Christum  talem  sortire  Magistrum." 

•  One  of  the  litanies  preserved  in  Santa  Scholastica  has  the  strange  invocation— 
"  Sancte  Dismas,  latro  de  Cruce.  .  .  .  "  , 


3o8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

From  the  principal  church  we  enter  upon  a  perfect 
labyrinth  of  chapels  hewn  out  of  the  rock,  which  frequently 
forms  one  of  their  walls,  while  the  other  is  completely 
covered  by  ancient  frescoes.  The  four  chapels  hewn  in  the 
rock  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  high  altar,  are  devoted 
to  the  story  of  S.  Benedict,  together  with  that  of  Scholas- 
tica,  Placidus,  Maurus,  and  other  of  his  followers.  The 
holy  water  basin  was  once  the  sarcophagus  of  a  Roman 
child,  and  is  decorated  with  reHefs  of  birds.  The  frescoes 
continue  in  succession  to  the  second  or  middle  church. 
A  Madonna  throned  between  two  angels  has  the  inscrip- 
tion— "  Magister  Conciolus  pinxit  hoc  opus."  Concioli  is  a 
rare  Umbrian  master  noticed  by  Vasari,  who,  however, 
seems  scarcely  to  have  been  aware  of  the  power  of  his 
works.  The  most  striking  frescoes  are  those  of  the  death 
and  burial  of  the  Virgin :  in  the  latter  the  Jews  who  at- 
tempted to  intercept  the  funeral  procession  are  represented 
as  stricken  with  blindness.  A  picture  of  the  martyrdom  of 
S.  Sebastian  bears  the  date  i486. 

"Le  gout  moderne,  qui  s' attache  surtout  a  I'effet  exterieur  et  a  la 
perfection  materielle,  peut  aujourd'hui  regarder  d'un  oeil  dedaigiieux  ces 
types  etranges  mais  singulierement  expressifs  qui,  pendant  plusieurs 
siecles,  furent  invariablement  reproduits  par  la  piete  autant  que  par  le 
genie  tout  symbolique  des  premiers  peintres  chretiens.  Or,  bien  different 
etait  sur  ces  questions  le  jugement  des  hommes  du  moyen  age.  Ammes 
du  sentiment  profondement  religieux  qui  avait  inspire  les  oeuvres  des 
artistes,  leurs  contemporains,  ils  regardaient  ces  pieuses  representations 
avec  les  yeux  de  la  foi,  et  n'y  cherchaient  qu'un  nouvel  aliment  a  la 
ferveur  dont  leur  ame  etait  remplie."  —  Alphonse  Dantier,  Les  Mon- 
asteres  BinSdidins, 

In  the  sacristy  are  some  small  pictures  by  Bellini  and  the 
Caracci.  Through  the  chapel  on  the  left  of  the  high  altar 
a  series  of  grotto-chapels  are  reached.     In  one  of  them  is 


THE  FRESCOES  OF  SUB lA  CO.     -  309 

a  picture  by  Giotto  of  "  gli  angeli  che  fanno  festa  "  over  the 
virtues  of  S.  Benedict  in  his  cave,  while  devils  are  torment- 
ing S.  Romano  and  cutting  his  cord. 

It  is  by  a  staircase  in  front  of  the  high  altar  that  we  de- 
scend to  the  under  church.  At  the  foot  of  the  first  flight  of 
steps  stands  the  frescoed  figure  of  Innocent  III.,  who  first 
raised  Subiaco  into  an  abbacy,  above  the  charter  of  1 2 1 3, 
setting  forth  all  the  privileges  he  accorded  to  the  abbey.  In 
the  same  fresco  is  represented  the  Abbot  John  of  Taglia- 
cozzo,  under  whom  (1217 — 1227)  the  chronicles  of  the 
abbey  narrate  that  many  of  the  paintings  were  executed. 

The  passage  on  the  right  of  this  landing  has,  among  many 
others,  a  fresco  of  S.  Claridonia,  who  lived  here  in  a  hermit- 
age above  the  monastery.  On  her  dress  is  a  curious  in- 
scription evidently  scratched  by  a  chaplain  of  ^neas  Silvius 
when  he  was  celebrating  mass  here.  Here  also  is  a  fresco  of 
Christ  seated  in  judgment — the  lily  in  his  hand  blossoms  on 
the  side  of  the  good.  This  passage  leads  to  the  hermitage 
occupied  by  S.  Gregory  the  Great  when  he  visited  Subiaco. 
On  the  outer  wall  is  a  fresco  of  Gregory  writing  his  com- 
mentary on  Job.  The  inner  chamber,  which  is  decorated 
with  frescoes  of  seraphim,  contains  a  portrait  of  S.  Francis, 
supposed  to  have  been  painted  during  his  visit  to  the  Sacro 
Speco,  by  the  artist  then  at  work  upon  the  chapel.  It  is  in 
exact  accordance  with  the  verbal  description  which  remains 
of  him  : — "  facie  hilaris,  vultus  benignus,  facie  utcumque 
oblonga  et  protensa,  frons  plana  et  parva,  nasus  sequalis  et 
rectus." 

•*  It  is  a  life-size  figure  of  a  youthful  monk  in  a  high  conical  cowl, — 
the  frock  and  cord  of  a  mendicant  friar,  inscribed  with  the  words 
FR-  FRACISCU.      Partially  restored  and  retouched,  the  head  may 


3IO  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

still  attract  attention  by  its  character.  Though  lean  from  abstinence,  the 
features  are  regular,  the  brow  open,  the  eyes  large,  and  the  nose  straight. 
The  tonsure  is  visible  across  the  forehead  and  along  the  temples  to  the 
ears,  which  are  not  remarkable  for  smallness.  A  straggling  beard  and 
a  downy  upper  lip  complete  a  far  more  pleasing  portrait  of  Brother 
Francis,  than  those  which  in  hundreds,  at  a  later  time,  were  placed  in 
every  monastery  and  convent  of  the  Order.  A  miniature  kneeling  figure 
of  a  donor  at  the  monk's  feet  seems  to  have  been  added  at  a  later  time. 
It  is  remarkable  that  S.  Francis  is  depicted  without  the  Stigmata  ;  and 
if  it  be,  as  is  pretended,  a  genuine  portrait,  it  must  have  been  executed, 
if  not  in  1216,  at  least  before  1228,  when  the  monk  was  canonized,  and 
perhaps  by  one  who  had  seen  and  conversed  with  him.  If  considered 
as  a  work  of  art,  it  differs  in  no  wise  from  other  early  pictures  in  the 
Sacro  Speco.  Parts  of  the  picture,  where  the  colour  had  entirely  fallen 
off,  have  been  renewed.  The  background  is  all  repainted." — Crowe  and 
Cavalcaselle. 

Another  portrait,  believed  to  be  from  his  own  hand,  re- 
presents Brother  Oddo,  a  monk  of  Subiaco,  receiving  the 
blessing  of  an  angel  he  has  invoked.  S.  Gregory  is  repre- 
sented consecrating  the  altar  of  the  church  with  the  words — 
"  Vere  locus  iste  sanctus  est  in  quo  orant."  An  inscription 
which  commemorates  the  dedication  of  the  chapel,  also 
mentions  the  two  months'  retreat  which  Gregory  IX.  made 
in  the  monastery : 

Pontificis  summi  fuit  anno  picta  secundo 
Hsec  domus  :  hie  primo  quo  summo  fulsit  honore, 
Manserat  et  vitam  coelestem  duxerat  idem, 
Perque  duos  menses  sacros  maceraverat  artus. 
Julius  est  unus,  Augustus  fervidus  alter. 

On  the  second  landing,  the  figure  of  Benedict  faces  us 
(on  a  window),  with  his  finger  on  his  lips,  imposing  silence. 
On  the  left  is  the  coro,  now  used  by  the  monks.  On  the 
right  the  cave  where  Benedict  is  said  to  have  passed  three 
years  in  darkness.  .  A  statue  by  Raggi  (sculptor  of  the 


FRESCOES  OF  SUB  I  A  CO.  311 

fountain  in  the  Piazza  Navona),  of  the  school  of  Bernini, 
commemorates  his  presence  here  :  a  basket  is  a  memorial 
of  that  lowered  with  his  food  by  S.  Romanus.  An  ancient 
bell  is  shown  as  that  which  rang  to  armounce  the  approach 
of  his  daily  sustenance. 

'*  The  grotto  of  Benedict  vividly  reminded  me  of  the  famous  grotto  of 
S.  Rosalia  on  the  Monte  Pellegrino  near  Palermo.  Behind  the  richly- 
decorated  altar  one  sees  the  marble  figure  of  the  young  Benedict  kneel- 
ing in  prayer  before  the  cross  :  it  is  a  tolerable  work  of  the  Bernini 
school,  and  it  gains  through  the  half  darkness  of  the  cavern.  Truly  every- 
thing here  has  a  dramatic  character.  The  smallness  and  grace  of  this 
little  church  gleaming  with  colour,  its  chapels  and  grottoes  like  a  spirit- 
ual vision,  such  as  I  have  never  found  elsewhere  in  the  whole  field  of 
religious  conception.  It  is  an  illustrated  picture-book  of  poetical 
legends,  which  are  bloodless  and  painless,  tliough  fantastic,  like  the 
lives  of  pious  anchorites  in  the  wilderness,  and  amid  the  birds  of  the  field. 
Here  Religion  treads  on  the  borders  of  fairy-land,  and  brings  an  inde- 
scribable atmosphere  away  from  thence." — Gregorovius. 

As  we  descend  the  Santa  Scala,  trodden  by  the  feet  of 
Benedict,  and  ascended  by  the  monks  upon  their  knees, 
the  solemn  beauty  of  the  place  increases  at  every  step. 
On  the  right,  is  a  powerful  fresco  of  Death  mowing  down 
the  young,  and  sparing  the  old ;  on  the  left,  the  Preacher 
shows  the  young  and  thoughtless  the  three  states  to  which 
the  body  is  reduced  after  death.  Much  of  the  rock  is  still 
left  bare  and  hangs  overhead  in  jagged  masses,  preserving 
the  cavern-like  character  of  the  scene,  while  every  available 
space  is  rich  with  colour  and  gold,  radiant,  yet  perfectly 
subdued  and  harmonious.  On  all  sides  the  saints  of  the 
Order,  and  those  especially  connected  with  it,  Benedict, 
Gregory  the  Great,  the  Archdeacon  Peter,  Romanus,  Maurus, 
Placidus,  Honoratus,  Scholastica,  and  Anatolia,  look  down 
upon  us  repeatedly  from  the  great  thirteenth-century  frescoes. 


312  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  C'est  d'abord  I'image  du  Christ  qui  ouvre  le  cycle  de  ces  peintures, 
en  indiquant,  dans  la  livre  de  sa  vie,  ce  passage  dont  le  texte  a  ete  si 
fidelement  suivi  par  I'auteur  de  la  regie  Benedictine — ego  sum  via,  Veritas, 
et  vita.  Par  un  harmonieux  rapprochement  qui  fait  honneur  a  la  pensee 
de  I'artiste,  de  meme  que  le  Sauveur  y  est  entoure  de  ses  principaux 
apotres,  de  meme  Saint  Benoit  y  rassemble  aupres  de  sa  personne  ses 
disciples  bien-aimes,  auxquels  il  recommande  de  benir  incessamment  le 
Seigneur,  et  d'avoir  toujours  ses  louanges  sur  leurs  levres  : 
Benedicam  Dominum  in  omni  tempore  : 
Semper  laus  in  ore  meo. 
En  effet,  a  I'entour  figurent  Saint  Romain,  Saint  Placide,  Saint  Maur,  et 
Saint  Honorat,  occupes  a  mediter  les  sages  preceptes  de  leur  maitre. 
Puis,  on  voit  Saint  Gregoire  ayant  a  ses  cotes  le  diacre  Pierre,  son  con- 
fident habituel,  et  tous  deux  places  en  face  du  pape  Saint  Sylvestre  ei  du 
diacre  Saint  Laurent.  Plus  loin  sous  la  derniere  travee,  apparaissent 
les  images  a  demi  symboliques  des  quatre  evangelistes  dont  le  corps,  qui 
a  la  forme  humaine,  est  surmonte  de  la  tete  de  chacun  des  animaux  qui 
leur  sert  ordinairement  d'embleme  distinctif." — Alphonse  Dantier,  Les 
Monasthres  Benedictins. 

"  Let  any  young  painter  or  sculptor,  thoroughly  accomplished  in  the 
mechanism  of  his  art,  in  which  these  his  predecessors  were  so  deficient, 
but  drawing  his  inspiration  from  Christianity  and  the  Romano-Teutonic 
nationality  of  Europe — let  any  such  young  artist,  I  say,  visit  Italy  so  pre- 
pared—tossing to  the  winds  the  jargon  of  the  schools,  content  to  feel 
and  yield  to  the  impulses  of  a  high,  and  pure,  and  holy  nature,  and  dis- 
posed, with  God's  blessing,  like  Fra  Angelico  or  Perugino,  to  dedicate 
his  talents,  as  the  bondsman  of  love,  to  his  Redeemer's  glory  and  the 
good  of  mankind — let  him  so  come,  and  commune  with  these  neglected 
relics  of  an  earlier,  a  simpler,  and  a  more  believing  age — talk  to  the 
spirit  that  dwells  within  them  in  its  own  universal  language ;  ask  it 
questions,  and  listen  reverently  for  a  reply — and  he  will  gain  more  than 
a  mere  response — that  spirit  will  pass  into  his  own  bosom — his  eyes  will 
be  touched  as  with  the  magician's  salve,  and  he  will  find  himself  in  a 
world  of  undreamt-of  beauty,  hitherto' unseen  only  because  inadequately 
bodied  forth  ;  a  world  of  high  spirits,  beings  of  the  mind  ;  ideas  as  yet 
only  half-born  (as  it  were),  but  which  will  throng  around  him  on  every 
side 

'Demanding  life,  impatient  for  the  skies,' 

for  that  life  of  immortality  which  his  practised  hand  can  so  well  bestow, 
— Lord  Lindsay's  Christian  Art. 


FRESCOES  OF  SUBIACO.  313 

In  the  chapel  on  the  left  of  the  Scala  Santa,  that  of  S. 
Lorenzo  Loricato,  who  is  buried  here,  is  a  picture  of  the 
Madonna  and  Child,  shown  as  one  which  existed  in  the 
time  of  S.  Benedict,  and  was  venerated  by  him  in  his  child- 
hood. It  is  signed  "  Stammatico  Greco  Pictor  P.,"  a  power- 
ful painter  of  whom  we  have  no  account  whatever. 

Lastly,  we  reach  the  Holy  of  Hohes,  the  second  cave,  in 
which  S.  Gregory  narrates  that  Benedict  after  his  return 
from  Vicovaro  (to  which  he  had  gone  for  a  short  time  as 
abbot)  "  dwelt  alone  with  himself,"  being  "  always  busied 
in  the  presence  of  his  Creator,  in  bewailing  the  spirit- 
ual miseries  of  his  soul  and  past  sins,  in  watching  over  the 
emotions  of  his  heart,  and  in  the  constant  contemplation  of 
Divine  things."  Here  the  Devil  hovered  over  him  as  a  little 
black  bird,  suggesting  sinful  thoughts  and  desires,  which  he 
subdued  by  flinging  himself  amid  the  thorns  and  nettles. 
Here  he  received  a  poisoned  loaf  from  the  wicked  priest 
Florentius,  and,  throwing  it  on  the  ground,  forced  a  tame 
raven  on  his  command  to  bear  it  beyond  mortal  reach.  And 
here  he  laid  down  the  rule  of  his  order,  making  its  basis  the 
twelve  degrees  of  humility  :  viz. — 

1.  Deep  compunction  of  heart,  and  holy  fear  of  God  and  His  judg- 
ments, with  a  constant  attention  to  walk  in  the  Divine  presence,  sunk 
under  the  weight  of  this  confusion  and  fear. 

2.  The  perfect  renunciation  of  our  own  will. 

3.  Ready  obedience. 

4.  Patience  under  all  sufferings  and  injuries. 

5.  The  manifestation  of  all  thoughts  to  a  spiritual  director. 

6.  To  be  content,  even  rejoice,  under  all  humiliations,  to  be  pleased 
with  mean  employments  and  mean  clothes  ;  in  short,  to  love  simplicity 
and  poverty. 

7.  To  esteem  ourselves  more  unworthy  and  base  than  all — even  the 
greatest  sinners. 


314  I^A  yS  NEAR  ROME. 

8.  To  avoid  all  wish  for  singularity  in  words  and  actions. 

9.  To  love  and  practise  silence. 

10.  To  avoid  uncurbed  mirth  and  laughter. 

11.  To  seek  for  modesty  of  speech  and  words. 

12.  To  be  humble  in  all  external  actions. 

"Three  virtues  constituted  the  sum  of  the  Benedictine  discipline. 
Silence  with  solitude  and  seclusion,  humility,  obedience,  which,  in  the 
strong  language  of  its  laws,  extended  to  impossibilities.  All  is  thus 
concentrated  on  self.  It  was  the  man  isolated  from  his  kind  who  was 
to  rise  to  a  lonely  perfection.  All  the  social,  all  patriotic,  virtues  were 
excluded  :  the  mere  mechanic  observance  of  the  rules  of  the  brother- 
hood, or  even  the  corporate  spirit,  are  hardly  worthy  of  notice,  though 
they  are  the  only  substitutes  for  the  rejected  and  proscribed  pursuits  of. 
active  life. 

*'  The  three  occupations  of  life  were  the  worship  of  God,  reading,  and 
manual  labour.  The  adventitious  advantages,  and  great  they  were,  of 
these  industrious  agricultural  settlements,  were  not  contemplated  by 
the  founder ;  the  object  of  the  monks  was  not  to  make  the  wilderness 
blossom  with  fertility,  to  extend  the  arts  and  husbandry  of  civilized  life 
into  barbarous  regions,  it  was  solely  to  employ  in  engrossing  occupation 
that  portion  of  time  which  could  not  be  devoted  to  worship  and  study. " 
— Milmans  Latin  Christianity. 

Here  an  appropriate  inscription  commemorates  the  won- 
derful series  of  saints,  who,  issuing  from  Subiaco,  became  the 
founders  of  the  Benedictine  Order  all  over  the  world. 

From  the  arches  below  the  convent  one  may  emerge  upon 
a  small  terraced  Garden^  once  a  ridge  covered  with  a  thicket 
of  thorns,  upon  which  S.  Benedict  used  to  roll  his  naked 
body  to  extinguish  the  passions  of  the  flesh.  Here,  seven 
centuries  afterwards,  S.  Francis,  coming  to  visit  the  shrine, 
knelt  and  prayed  before  the  thorns  which  had  such  glorious 
memories,  and  planted  two  rose-trees  beside  them.  The 
roses  of  S.  Francis  flourish  still,  and  are  carefully  tended  by 
the  monks,  but  the  Benedictine  thorns  have  disappeared. 

*'Cejardin,  deux  fois  sanctifie,  occupe  encore  une  sorte  de  plateau 


GARDEN  OF  S.  BENEDETTO.  315 

triangulaire  qui  se  projette  sur  le  flanc  du  rocher,  un  peu  en  avant  et  au- 
dessous  de  la  grotte  qui  servait  de  gxte  a  Benoit.  Le  regard,  confine  de 
tous  cotes  par  les  rochers,  n'y  peut  errer  en  liberte  que  sur  I'azur  du  ciel. 
C'est  le  dernier  des  lieux  sacres  que  Ton  visite  et  que  Ton  venere,  dans 
ce  cel^bre  et  unique  monastere  du  Sagro  Speco^  qui  forme  comme  une 
serie  de  sanctuaires  superposes  les  uns  aux  autres  et  adosses  k  la  mon- 
tagne  que  Benoit  a  immortalisee.  Tel  fut  le  dur  et  sauvage  berceau  de 
rOrdre  monastique  en  Occident.  C'est  de  ce  tombeau,  oti  s'etait  ense- 
veli  tout  vivant  cet  enfant  delicat  des  derniers  patriciens  de  Rome,  qu'est 
nee  la  forme  definitive  de  la  vie  monastique,  c'est-a-dire  la  perfection  de 
la  vie  chretienne.  De  cette  caverne  et  de  ce  buisson  d'epines  sont  issues 
ces  legions  de  moines  et  de  saints  dont  le  devouement  a  valu  a  I'Eglise 
ses  conquetes  les  plus  vastes  et  ses  gloires  les  plus  pures.  De  cette 
source  a  jailli  I'intarissable  courant  du  zele  et  de  la  faveur  religieuse. 
Li  sont  venus,  W  viendront  encore  tous  ceux  k  qui  1' esprit  du  grand 
Benoit  inspirera  la  force  d'ouvrir  de  nouvelles  voies  ou  de  restaurer 
I'antique  discipline  dans  la  vie  claustrale.  Tous  y  reconnaissent  la  site 
sacre  que  le  prophete  Isaie  semble  avoir  montre  d'avance  aux  cenobites 
par  ces  paroles  d' une  application  si  merveilleusement  exacte  :  Attendite  ad 
petram  de  qua  excisi  estis,  et  ad  cavemain  loci  de  qua  prcecisi  estis.  II 
faut  plaindre  le  chretien  qui  n'a  pas  vu  cette  grotte,  ce  desert,  ce  nid 
d'aigle  et  de  colombe,  ou  qui,  I'ayant  vu,  ne  s'est  pas  prosteme  avec  un 
tendre  respect  devant  le  sanctuaire  d'oii  sortirent,  avec  le  regie  et  I'in- 
stitut  de  saint  Benoit,  la  fleur  de  la  civilisation  chretienne,  la  victoire 
permanente  de  Tame  sur  la  matiere,  I'affranchissement  intellectuel  de 
I'Europe,  et  tout  ce  que  I'esprit  de  sacrifice,  regie  par  la  foi,  ajoute  de 
grandeur  et  de  charme  i  la  science,  au  travail,  k  la  vertu  " — Montalem,' 
berty  Les  Moines  d' Occident. 

"Cache  d'abord  au  fond  d'un  autre,  oublie  des  hommes,  et  connu  de 
Dieu  seul,  passant  les  nuits,  ou  k  chanter  de  saints  cantiques,  ou  k 
mediter  les  annees  etemelles,  Benoit  ne  trouve  plus  de  volupte  qu'a 
crucifier  sa  chair,  et  la  reduire  en  servitude  ;  devenu  pere  d'un  peuple 
de  solitaires,  il  renouvelle  en  Occident  ces  prodiges  d'austerite,  que  les 
deserts  de  Seethe  et  de  la  Thebaide  avoient  admires ;  et  sa  regie  si 
estimee  depuis,  ne  fut,  dit  Saint  Gregoire,  que  I'histoire  exacte  des 
moeurs  du  saint  Legislateur.  C'est  ainsi  que  Benoit  confond  la  mollesse 
du  monde.  En  effet,  quand  on  nous  propose  ces  grands  modeles,  nous 
nous  recrions  sur  la  puissance  de  la  grace  dans  ces  hommes  extraordi- 
naires :  mais  nous  n'allons  pas  plus  loin  ;  et  parceque  nous  ne  croyons 
pas  que  ces  modeles  de  penitence  soient  proposes  pour  etre  imites,  nous 


3 16  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

ne  les  croyons  pas  meme  faits  pour  nous  instruire.  Mais  quel  a  pu  etre 
le  dessein  de  Dieu  en  suscitant  dans  tous  les  si^cles,  de  ces  penitents 
fameux  qui  ont  edifie  I'Eglise?  n'est-ce  pas  de  nous  faire  comprendre  de 
quoi  notre  faiblesse,  soutenue  de  la  grace,  est  encore  capable?  De  plus, 
je  vous  demande  pourquoi  ces  grands  exemples  de  penitence  nous 
paroissent-ils  si  eloignes  de  nos  devoirs  et  de  notre  etat  ?  Est-ce  parce- 
qu'ils  ont  vecu  dans  des  siecles  fort  eloignes  des  notres  ?  mais  les  devoirs 
ne  changent  pas  avec  les  ages.  Est-ce  parce  que  les  Saints  ont  ete  des 
hommes  extraordinaires  ?  mais  les  Saints  ne  sont  devenus  parmi  nous 
des  hommes  extraordinaires,  que  parceque  la  corruption  est  devenue 
universelle.  Est-ce  parceque  les  mortifications  et  les  saintes  austerites 
ne  forment  que  le  caractere  particulier  de  quelques  Saints  ?  mais  lisez 
les  histoires  ;  tous  ont  fait  penitence  ;  tous  ont  crucifie  leur  chair  avec 
leurs  desirs  ;  et  partout  ou  vous  trouverez  des  Saints,  vous  les  trouverez 
penitents.  Nous  avons  done  beau  nous  rassurer  sur  I'exemple  commun  ; 
si  les  Saints  I'avoient  suivi,  ils  ne  meritoient  pas  aujourd'hui  nos  hom- 
mages.  L'Evangile  est  fait  pour  nous  comme  pour  eux  ;  et  comme  il 
n'a  rien  qui  nous  ressemble,  il  n'a  rien  non  plus  qui  doive  nous  rassurer." 
Massillo7i,  Sermons. 

Under  the  part  of  the  cave  which  opens  upon  this  garden 
all  the  monks  are  buried,  and  when  corruption  has  passed 
away  their  bones  are  taken  up  and  placed  in  an  open  chapel 
in  the  rock,  where  they  are  visible  to  all.  To  obtain  a 
general  view  of  the  convent  of  the  Sacro  Speco,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  follow  the  lower  path  which  diverges  just  beyond 
Santa  Scholastica.  A  succession  of  zig-zags  along  the  edge 
of  the  cliffs,  amid  savage  scenery,  leads  into  the  gorge, 
which  is  closed  in  the  far  distance  by  the  rock-built  town 
of  Jenne,  the  birth-place  of  Alexander  IV.  and  of  the  Abbot 
Lando.  We  cross  the  river  by  a  bridge,  whence  a  pathlet, 
winding  often  by  staircases  up  and  down  the  rocks,  allows  one 
to  see  the  whole  building  rising  above  the  beautiful  falls  of  the 
Anio.  We  emerge  close  to  the  ruins  of  a  Nymphceum  belong- 
ing to  Nero's  Villa,  and  nothing  can  be  more  imposing  than 
the  view  from  hence  up  the  gorge,  with  the  great  rock-crest- 


CASTLE  OF  SUBIACO. 


317 


ing  monastery  on  the  other  side,  and  all  the  wealth  of  rich 
verdure  on  the  nearer  steeps,  which  take  the  name  of  Mofite 
Carpineto  from  the  hornbeams  with  which  they  are  covered. 
The  little  chapel  above  the  Sacro  Speco  is  that  of  San  Biagio 
(S.  Blaise),  who  is  invoked  whenever  any  catastrophe  occurs 
in  the  valley.  Here,  once  every  year,  mass  is  chaunted  by 
the  monks  of  Santa  Scholastica. 


Sacro  Speco,  Subiaco. 

The  castle,  called  La  Rocca^  built  by  the  warlike  Abbot 
John  v.,  was  long  a  summer  residence  of  the  popes.  One 
of  its  towers,  still  called  "  Borgiana,"  recalls  the  residence 
here  of  Cardinal  Rodrigo  Borgia,  afterwards  Alexander  VI. 
Magnificent  views  may  be  obtained  from  the  windows  of  the, 
rooms,  which  contain  a  few  good  pictures. 


3 1 8  BAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  town  formerly  professed  the  utmost  devotion  to  the 
papacy,  and  the  waggon-load  of  its  wild-flowers  was  one  of 
the  most  suggestive  and  attractive  of  the  presents  to  Pius  IX. 
on  his  anniversary,  sent  by  "  Za  sua  divotissima  Subiaco" 
yet  now  the  names  of  the  streets  are  all  changed,  and  we 
have  the  eternal  "Via  Cavour,  Via  Venti  Settembre,  &c." 
Costumes  still  linger  here,  but  are  less  striking  than  further 
in  the  mountains.  The  men  all  wear  bunches  of  flowers  in 
their  hats  on  festas,  the  women  wear  spadoni,  ending  in  a 
hand,  an  acorn,  or  a  bunch  of  flowers  in  silver.  Beyond 
the  Albergo  della  Pernice  (see  above),  and  the  gate 
built  in  honour  of  Pius  VI.,  is  a  curious  old  bridge  with  a 
gate-tower  over  the  Anio.  One  of  the  best  views  of  the 
town  is  just  across  this  bridge. 

The  path  which  is  approached  by  the  bridge  leads  to  the 
beautifully  situated  Convent  of  the  Cappucciiii.  In  its  portico 
is  a  very  quaint  fresco  of  S.  Francis,  the  beloved  of  animals, 
"vir  vere  catholicus  totusque  apostolicus,"  shaking  hands 
with  a  wolf,  much  to  the  horror  of  his  attendant  monks.* 
Endless  other  paths  lead  up  the  hills  in  difl"erent  directions, 
through  woods  by  rushing  brooks,  and  along  mountain 
ledges,  and  indeed  the  whole  of  the  Vcille  Safita,  as  the  dis- 
trict of  Subiaco  is  popularly  called,  is  well  worth  exploring. 

The  road  to  Tivoli  is  one  of  the  many  benefits  which 
Subiaco  owes  to  its  having  been  so  long  the  residence  of 
Pius  VI.     It  follows,  first  the  Via  Sublacensis,  constructed 

*  Thii  was  at  Gubbio.  A  wolf  who  had  long  ravaged  the  surrounding  country  was 
rebuked  by  S.  Francis,  who  promised  it  a  peaceful  existence  and  daily  food,  if  it  would 
amend  its  ways.  The  wolf  agreed  to  the  compact,  and  placed  his  right  paw  in  the 
hand  of  S.  Francis  in  token  of  confidence  and  good  faith.  "  Brother  Wolf,"  as  S. 
Francis  called  him,  "  lived  afterwards  tamely  for  two  years  at  Gubbio,  in  good  fellow- 
ship with  all,  and  finally  died,  much  regretted,  of  old  age." — From  the  "  Fioretti  di  S. 
Francesco." 


THE  VALLE  SANTA. 


319 


by  Nero,  and  then  the  Via  Valeria ^  which  was  the  work  of 
the  censor  Valerius  Maximus,  in  the  year  of  Rome  447.  In 
spring,  when  it  is  chiefly  visited  by  foreigners,  the  country 
here  strikes  one  as  bare,  and  the  chief  interest  is  derived 
entirely  from  the  villages  which  crest  the  hills  on  either  side. 


Subiaco. 


But  in  summer,  when  the  chestnut  woods  are  in  full  leaf, 
and  the  luxuriant  vines  leap  from  tree  to  tree  along  the  val- 
leys, the  scenery  is  unspeakably  lovely. 

**Les  montagnes  rapprochees  forment  une  suite  de  vallees  etroites  et 
singalierement  accidentees,  oil,  a  chaque  detour  du  chemin,  le  charme 
saisissant  de  Timprevu  vous  decouvre  une  source  toujours  nouvelle 
d' Amotions.  Sous  la  voute  epaisse  de  ces  bois,  au  milieu  des  gorges 
protbndes  de  ces  montagnes,  on  croit  errer  dans  les  forets  primitives  que 
les  anciennes  traditions  nous  representent  pleines  de  tenebres,  de  mys- 
t^re  et  d'horreur,  et  qui  couvraient  le  pays,  quand  les  colons  sicules  et 
pelasges  vinrent  s'y  etablir  long-temps  avant  la  periode  romaine. 

**  La  silence  de  ces  retraites  inhabitees  n'est  trouble  que  par  le  mur- 


320  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

mure  de  ruisseaux  nombreux  qui,  roulant  sur  des  pentes  rapides,  y 
forment  des  cascades  et  se  precipitent  ensuite  dans  I'Anio,  dont  les 
chutes  retentissantes  dominent  9a  et  la  tous  les  autres  bruits.  C'est 
toujours  le  meme  cours  d'eau  impetueux,  aux  ondes  froides  et  trans- 
parentes — '  Frigidas  atque  perspicuas  emanat  aquas' — comme  le  peint 
Saint  Gregoire  le  grand,  en  decrivant  la  contree  montagneuse  ou  le 
jeune  Benoit  trouva  une  solitude  si  bien  appropriee  a  ses  desirs.  Au- 
jourd'hui  encore  la  nature  vivante  n'y  decele  sa  presence  qu'a  de  rares 
intervalles.  Parfois  seulement  un  troupeau  de  chevres  a  demi  sauvages 
apparait  suspendu  sur  la  crete  d'un  mamelon  recouvert  de  broussailles. 
Au  vetement  grossier,  h.  la  figure  etrange  du  patre  qui  les  conduit,  il 
semble  qu'on  retrouve  quelque  berger  arcadien,  descendant  des  com- 
pagnons  du  bon  roi  ^vandre.  Assis  sur  la  pointe  du  roc  d'ou  il  parait 
ecouter  la  bruyante  harmonic  produite  par  les  chutes  de  I'Anio,  ce 
berger  rappelle  assez  fidelement  celui  que  Virgile  depeint,  dans  une 
attitude  semblable ; 

' stupet  inscius  alto 

Accipiens  sonitum  saxi  de  vertice  pastor.' 

yEn.  ii.  307. 

pretant  I'oreille  aux  bruits  sinistres  qui  s'elevent  d'une  campagne  devastee 
par  I'inondation  d'un  torrent." — Alphonse  Dantier. 

A  continuous  avenue  of  mountain  villages  lines  the  way. 
First  we  have,  on  the  right  Cerbara,  and  on  the  left  I^occa  di 
Canterano^  its  long  lines  of  old  houses  cresting  the  declivity. 
Then,  on  the  right  we  have  Agosta,  and  on  the  left  Marano. 
A  road  on  the  right  now  turns  otf  to  the  Lago  Fucino,  and, 
only  two  miles  distant,  we  see  ArsoU,  the  ancient  Arsula, 
containing  the  handsome,  still  inhabited  castle  of  Prince 
Massimo.  Here  the  apartment  once  occupied  by  S.  Filippo 
Neri,  founder  of  the  Oratorians,  is  preserved  with  rehgious 
care.  Though  he  frequently  staid  with  the  Massimo  family, 
he  lived  here  almost  as  a  hermit,  eating  only  bread,  with  a 
few  olives,  herbs,  or  an  apple,  drinking  only  water,  and  lying 
on  the  bare  floor.  There  is  a  small  Picture  Gallery  at  Arsoli, 
but  it  is  almost  always  locked  up. 


S,  COS/MA  TO.  321 

Passing  under  Roviano^  which  has  a  castle  of  the  Sciarras, 
we  reach  a  more  fertile  country,  where  the  men  train  the 
vines,  with  bunches  of  great  blue  iris  fastened  in  their  hats, 
and  on  the  right  we  see  Cantelupo,  where  the  Marchese  del 
Gallo,  who  married  a  daughter  of  Prince  Lucien  Buonaparte, 
has  a  chateau,  in  which  he  spends  the  summer.  Here  a 
number  of  shrines,  surrounding  a  little  green  with  some  old 
ilex-trees,  announce  the  approach  to  San  Cosimato,  the 
village  of  hermitages,  mentioned  in  a  bull  of  Gregory  VII. 
as  "  Monasterium  Sancti  Cosimatis  situm  in  valle  Tiburtina." 
No  one  would  imagine,  from  merely  passing  along  the  road, 
that  this  is  one  of  the  most  curious  places  in  the  country, 
well  deserving  of  attention  and  study.  But  in  the  earliest 
ages  of  Latin  Christianity  the  caverns  in  the  cliffs  which  here 
abruptly  overhang  the  river,  had  been  taken  possession  of  by 
a  troop  of  hermits,  who  turned  this  country,  for  they  had 
many  caverns  at  Vicovaro  also,  into  a  perfect  Thebaid. 
Passing  through  the  convent,  and  its  pretty  garden  full  of 
pillared  pergolas  (ladies  are  not  admitted),  a  winding  path, 
the  merest  ledge,  often  a  narrow  stair  against  the  face  of  the 
precipice,  often  caverned  over  or  tunnelled  through  the 
rock,  leads  to  this  extraordinary  settlement,  and  opens  upon 
one  tiny  hermitage  after  another,  provided  with  its  little 
window  and  its  rock-hewn  couch  and  seat.  A  campa- 
nile remains  on  a  projecting  crag,  which  summoned  the 
recluses  to  prayer.  The  last  cave,  larger  than  any  of  the 
others,  was  their  chapel,  formed  of  living  rock.  Mass  is  still 
occasionally  said  here,  and  the  scene  is  most  striking,  as,  to 
admit  the  light,  large  doors  just  opposite  the  altar,  and  only 
a  few  feet  distant,  are  thrown  open,  and  one  looks  down  the 
perpendicular  cliff  overhung  with  ilexes  centuries  old:,  into  the 
VOL.  I.  :«i 


322  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Anio  immediately  beneath,  and  the  roar  of  its  waters  mingles 
with  the  chaunting  of  the  Psalms.     In  the  fifth  century  a 


At  S.  Cosimato. 

collection  of  monks  had  united  on  the  heigliis  above  the 
river,  and,  before  he  had  founded  his  own  convent,  attracted 
by  the  fame  of  his  sanctity,  they  chose  S.  Benedict  as  their 
superior.  He  declined  at  first,  warning  them  that  they 
*vould  not  like  the  severity  of  his  rule,  but  they  insisted  and 
he  joined  them  here.  In  a  short  time  his  austerity  roused 
their  hatred,  and  they  attempted  to  poison  him  in  the 
Sacrament  cup,  but  when,  before  drinking,  he  made  the  sign 
of  the  cross  over  it,  it  fell  to  pieces  in  his  hands.  "  God 
forgive  you,  my  brethren,"  he  said,  "  you  see  that  I  spoke 
the  truth  when  I  told  you  that  your  rule  and  mine  would  not 
agree,"  and  he  returned  to  Subiaco.    The  scene  of  this  story 


S.   COSIMATC.  323 

\s  a  caverned  chapel  in  the  cliff  on  the  other  side  of  the  con- 
vent, adorned  with  rude  frescoes.  Here  women  are  per- 
mitted to  enter. 

Two  miles  beyond  San  Cosimato  is  Vicovaro.     The  rest 
of  the  road  to  Tivoli  is  described  in  chapter  xiii. 


END   OF   VOL.    L 


JNDEX. 


Acque  Sal  vie,  ii.  290 

Acuto,  i.  267 

Ad   Medias,   Roman  station  of,   ii. 
249 

/Esula,  i.  190 

Agosta,  i.  320 

Agylla,  ii.  304 

Alatri,  i.  251  ;  ii.  10 

Alba  Fucinensis,  ii.  183 

Alba  Longa,  site  of,  i.  73 

Alban  Lake.  i.  67 

Alban  Mount,  distant  view  of,  i.  51  ; 
summit  of,  i.  85 

Albano,  i.  59 — 80 

Albula,  river,  i.  185 

Aldobrandini,   family  of — their  villa 
at  Frascati,  i.  104 

Alexander  III.,  Pope — his  consecra- 
tion at  Ninfa,  i.  236 

Allia,  the  river,  i.  175,  181 

Altieri,    family    of  —  their    villa    at 
Oriolo,  i.  152 

Aluminiera,  ii.  311 

Amasena,  the  river,  ii.  10,  249,  259 

Amatrice,  ii.  161 

Amelia,  ii.  139 

Amiternum,  ii.  161 

Amphitheatre  of  Albano,  i.  66 

Albai  Fucensis,  ii.  184 
Sutr,  ii.  68 
Tusculum,  i.  107 

Ampighone,  i.  207 

Anagni,  i.  259 — 267 

Angelico,  Fra,  his  frescoes  at  Orvieto, 
ii.  128 

Angitia,  ii.  189 
Anguillara,  i.  152 

Anio,  river,  i.  185  ;  falls  of,  at  Tivoli, 
i.  194,  196  ;  at  Subiaco,  i.  316 


Anio  Novus,  Aqueduct  of,  at  Tivoli, 

i.  204 
Ansedonia,  ii.  345 
Antinum,  ii.  191 
Antium,  ii.  268 
Antrodoco,  ii.  163 
Antemnse,  i.  167 
Anxur,  ii.  251 
Appii  Forum,  ii,  248 
Appiola,  i.  55 
Aquee  Albulaj,  i.  186 
I  Aqua  Bollicante,  i.  154 
Aquae  Cutiliae,  ii.  162 
Aqua  Ferentina,  ii.  290 
Aqueduct  of  the  Anio  Novus,  i.  281 
Aqua  Claudia,  i.  52, 

97,  281 
Aqua  Marcia,  i.  295 
Aqua  Vergine,  i.  162 
Delia  Torre  at  Spo- 

leto,  ii.  146 
Paohne,  i.  97 
Aquataccia,  the,  ii.  290 
Aquila,  ii.  163 — 169 
Aquino,  ii.  234 — 241 
Area,  i.  259 
Arce,  ii.  202 
Arco  di  Pino,  i.  140 
Ardea,  ii.  276 
Ariccia,  i.  62 
Arnara,  i.  259 
Amolfo,  tomb  of  Cardinal  de  Braye 

by,  ii.  133 
Arpino,  ii.  198 

Arpino,   II  Cavaliere  d'  —  picture  at 
Trisulti  by,  ii.  18  ;  birthplace  of, 
}      ii.  200 

i  Arrone,  rivulet,  i.  144 
!  Arsoli,  i.  320 
j  Artena,  i.  268 
I  Aspra,  ii.  25 


INDEX. 


335 


Astura,  ii.  27 
Atina,  ii.  203 
Augustus,  bridge  of — at  Narni,  ii. 

136 
Avezzano,  ii.  183 

B. 

Baccano,  i.  141 

Bag^aja,  ii.  89 

Bagni  di  Paterno,  ii.  162 

Bagnorea,  ii.  116 

Balbi  of  Alatri,  works  of,  ii.  18 

Balzorano,  ii.  192 

Barberiiii,  Cardinal,  i.  127 ;  the 
family  Dukes  of  Segni,  i.  242 ; 
their  palace  at  Palestrina,  i.  275  ; 
their  residence  at,  i.  281 

Bardella,  i.  209 

Basilica  of  S.  Alessandro,  i.  178 

Bassano,  Francesco  and  Leandro, — 
frescoes  by,  ii.  229 

Bernini,  Chigi  Palace  at  Ariccia  by, 
i.  63 

Bertaldo,  tower  of,  ii.  314 

Bieda,  ii.  97 — 100 

Bisentina,  island  of,  ii.  10 

Blera,  ii.  97 

Bomanzo,  ii.  107 

Boniface  VIII.,  the  story  of,  i.  263 — 
265 ;  his  persecution  of  the  Colonna 
family,  i.  272  ;  his  treatment  of 
Coelestine  V.,  ii,  7 

Borghese,  property  of, — at  Frascati, 
i.  n6  ;  at  Cervaretto,  i.  162  ;  at 
Palombara,  i.  179 ;  at  Porto 
d'Anzio,  ii.  267  ;  at  Pratica,  i.  282  ; 
at  Rocca  Priora,  i.  168 

Borghetto,  on  the  Alban  hills,  i.  99 
in  the  Sabina,  ii.  33 

Borgia,  Caesar, — his  siege  of  Isola 
Farnese,  i.  132 

Borgo  Velino,  ii.  163 

Bovillae,  i.  55 

Bracciano,  i.  146 

Bramante,  La  Querela  built  by,  ii.  88 

Braschi,  family  of, — Villa  Adriana  the 
property  of,  road  constructed  by, 
i.  190  ;  villa  at  Tivoli  of,  i.  204 

Brigands  in  the  Campagna,  i.  35  ; 
their  attack  on  the  family  of  Lucien 
Buonaparte,  i.  105  ;  their  encour- 
agement by  the  Sardinian  Govern- 
ment, ii.  36 

Bruno,  Bishop,  his  statue  at  Segni. 
his  history,  i.  245,  246 


Bulicame,  the, — baths  of,  ii.  93 

Buonaparte,  family  of, — their  pro- 
p)erty  at  Frascati,  i.  105  ;  at  Musig- 
nano,  ii.  334  ;  their  connexion  with 
Canino,  ii.  334  ;  their  burial-place 
at  Corneto,  ii.  317 

Buonaventura,  S., — birth-place  of, 
ii.  116 

Buon  Ricovero,  farm  of,  131 


Caere,  ii.  304 

Camaldoli,  convent  of  the,  on  the 

Alban  hills,  i.  113 
Camindoli,  ii.  181 

Campagna,  the,  —  its  geographica 
limits,  i.  II,  12  ;  characteristics  of 
the,  i.  19,  32  ;  effect  of  the,  i.  98  ; 
lost  cities  of  the,  i.  144  ;   in  the 
direction  of  Ostia,  ii.  292  ;  views 
over,  i.  131 
Campagnano,  i.  141 
Campiglia,  hill  of,  ii.  353 
Campo  Bufalaro,  ii.  287 
di  Annibale,  i.  84 
Morto,  i.  40  ;  ii.  245 
Canino,  ii.  334 
Cantalupo,  i.  320 
Canterano,  i.  320 
Capistrello,  ii.  191 
Capranica,  ii.  104 
Caprarola,  ii.  65 — 73 
Carciano,  a  suburb  of  Tivoli,  i.  206 
CarsoU,  ii.  186 

Cartiera,  the, — of  Isola,  ii.  198 
Casale  dei  Pazzi,  i.  178 
Casamari,  ii.  8 — 10 
Casa  Nuova,  i.  179 
Castel  d'Asso,  ii.  89 — 94 
Fusano,  i.  47 — 49 
Gandolfo,  i.  72 
Giubeleo,  i.  173 
Madam  a,  i.  207 
deir  Osa,  i.  160,  164 
Porciano,  ii.  287 
di  Sangro,  ii.  178 
Castiglione,  tower  of,  i.  157 
Castle  of — 

Anguillara,  i.  152 

Antrodoco,  ii.  163 

Aquila,  ii.  169 

Ardea,  ii.  277 

Arsoli,  i.  320 

Avezzano,  ii.  183 

Borgetto,  near  Frascati,  i.  99 


326 


INDEX. 


Castle  of — continued. 

Borghetto,  in  the  Sabina,  ii.  33 

Bracciano,  i.  147 

Cantelupo,  i.  32 

Castel  di  Sangro,  ii.  178 

Castel  Fusano,  i.  47 

Celano,  ii.  181 

Ceprano,  ii.  205 

'Civita  Castellana,  ii.  35 

Galera,  i.  146 

Isola,  ii.  202 

Montalto,  ii.  329 

Nemi,  i.  88 

Nepi,  ii.  58 

Olevano,  i.  291 

Ortucchio,  ii.  190 

Orvieto,  ii.  134 

Ostia,  i.  42 

Palestrina,  i.  280 

Passerano,  i.  206 

Petrella,  ii.  162 

Popoli,  ii.  169 

Populonia,  ii.  351 

Pratica,  ii.  283 

Rocca  Janula,  ii.  208 

Ronciglione,  ii.  64 

Roviano,  i.  320 

Savelli,  at  Albano,  i.  79 

Segni,  i.  242 

Sermoneta,  ii.  246 

S.  Severa,  ii.  312 

Spoleto,  ii.  146 

Subiaco,  i.  320 

Tivoli,  i.  194 

Viterbo,  ii.  79 
Castro,  ii.  338 
Castro  Vetere,  i.  194 
Castrum  Novum,  Roman  station  of, 

ii-  313 
Cathedral  of— 
Alatri,  i.  253 
Albano,  i.  78 
Anagni,  i.  261 — 267 
Bieda,  ii.  97 
Civita  Castellana,  ii.  36 
Cometo,  ii.  315 
Ferentino,  i.  256 
Frascati,  i.  99,  100 
Massa,  ii.  35 
Nami,  ii.  139 
Orvieto,  ii.  120 
Ostia,  i.  43 
Palestrina,  i.  275 
Pontecorvo,  ii.  242 
.Porto,  ii.  298 
Ronciglione,  ii.  64 


Cathedral  ol— continued. 
Segni,  i.  245 
Spoleto,  ii.  147 
Sutri,  ii.  64 
Terni,  ii.  140 
Terracina,  ii.  252 
Tivoli,  i.  202 
Todi,  ii.  143 
Toscanella,  ii.  336 
Valmontone,  i.  269 
Velletri,  i.  223 
Cavaliere,  ii.  186 
Cavamonte,  i.  160 
Cavi,  i.  283 
Ceccano,  ii.  205 
Celano,  ii.  181. 

Lago  di,  ii.  186 
Centumcellaj,  ii.  313 
Ceprano,  ii.  205 
Cerbara,  near  Siibiaco,  i.  320 
Ceri  Nuovo,  ii.  311 
Cervara,  caves  and  tower  of,  i.  162  ; 

festaof,  i.  163 
Cervaretto,  i.  154,  162 
Cervetri,  ii.  302 — 311 
Cesarini,  family  of  the, — their  pro- 
perty at  Genzano,  i.  90  ;  at  Ardea, 
ii.  277. 
Chiarriccia,  ii.  313 
Chigi,    family   of, — their  palace    at 
Castel  Fusano,  i.  47  ;  at  Arriccia, 
i.  63. 
Ciampino,  i.  98 
Ciminian  Hills,  ii.  59 — 74 
Cioccari,  the,  i,  287 
Circean  Mount,  ii.  253 
Circeii,  town  of,  ii.  255 
Cisterna,  ii.  244 
Citadel  of  Tusculum,  i.  109 

Veii,  i.  136 
Civita  Castellana,  ii.  33 — 39 
d'Antino,  ii.  191 
Ducale,  ii.  162 
Lavinia,  i.  93 
la  Penna  d'Oro,  i.  231 
di  Roveto,  ii.  191 
Vecchia,  ii.  313 
Civitella,  i.  291 
Claudian  Aqueduct,  near  Tivoli.  i 

206,  207 
Collatia,  i.  164 
CoUemaggio,  La,  ii.  166 
CoUepardo,  village  of,  ii.  13  ;  Grotto 

of,  ii.  19 
Collicelli,  ii.  161 
Colonelle,  Lago  della,  i.  186 


INDEX. 


\2^ 


I 


Colonia,  ii.  350 
Colonna,  i.  119 

Colonna,  family  of, — at  Marino,  i. 
130 ;  at  Galera,  i.  145  ;  at  Colonna, 
i.  118  ;  at  Olevano,  i.  291  ;  their 
Pope,  1.  288  ;  at  Cavi,  i.  282  ;  at 
Paliano,  i.  288  ;  at  Palestrina,  i. 
272—280 
Colonna,   Vittoria,  her  residence  at 

Viterbo,  ii.  85. 
Columbariunri  of  Veii,  i.  134 
Concioli,  frescoes  at  Subiaco  by,  i. 

308 
Convent  of — 
Acuto,  i.  267 
Buon  Pastore,  near  Cavamonte, 

i.  160 
Camaldoli,  i.  113 
Cappiiccini,  at  Albano,  i.  65 
Cappuccini,  at  Frascati,  i.  105 
Cappuccini,  at  Subiaco,  1.  318 
Cappuccini,  at  Velletri,  i.  224 
Casamari,  i.  8 
Fossanuova,  ii.  255 
Gesuiti,  at  Velletri,  i.  225 
Grotta  Ferrata,  i.  126 
II  Retiro,  on  Monte  Argentaro, 

ii.  347 
La  Madonna  del  Sorbo,  i.  143 
La  Quercia,  ii.  88 
Monte  Cassino,  ii.  208 
Passionists,  on  Monte  Cavo,  i.  85 
S.  Casciano  at  Nami,  ii.  137 
S.  Elia,  ii.  56 
S.  Pietro  Celestino,  ii.  176 
Sacro  Speco,  i.  306 
S.  Scholastica,  i.  303 
S.  Silvestro,  near  Monte  Com- 
patri,  i.  121 
on  Mount  Soracte, 
ii.  48 
Trisulti,  ii.  ig 
Consular  Tomb  at  Palazzuola,  i.  82 
Conti,  family  of,— their  possessions 
at  Segni,  i.  242  ;  their  fortress  at 
Monte  Fortino,  i.  268 
Corchiano,  ii.  54 
Corcolo,  i.  161 
Corese,  i.  180 
Corfinium,  ii.  179 
Corioli,  i.  95 
Corneto,  ii.  315 — 327 
Comufelle,  Laice  of,  i.  116 
Cosa,  ii.  345 

Cosmati,   the  family  of.— the    Gae- 
tani  tomb  at  Anagni  by,  i.  266; 


mosaics  at  Subiaco  by,  i.  304  ;  at 
Civita  Castellana  by,  ii  34 
Crimera,  the  river,  i.  133,  175 
Cnistumerium,  i.  182 
Cyclopean  walls  of — 

Alatri,  i.  251 — 253 

Amelia,  ii.  139 

Arpino,  ii.  200 

Atina,  ii.  203 

Cori,  i.  228 

Cosa,  ii.  345 

Ferentino,  i.  256 

Norba,  i.  231 

Palestrina,  i.  280 

Pyrgi,  ii.  313 

Segni,  i.  243 


Dennis,  his  work  on  Etruria,  i.  17 
Digentia,  the  brook,  i.  209 
Diligence  travelling,  i.  34 
Domenichino,  his  frescoes  at  Grotta 

Ferrata,  L  127 
Doria   Pamphili,   family  of,  —  their 

property  at  Valmontone,  i.  269 
Dragoncello,  ii.  291 


Egeria,  fountain   of,   near  Nemi,  i. 

89 
Emissarium  of  the  Alban  Lake,  i.  69 
of  the  Lago  Fucino,  ii. 
188 
Empulum,  i.  207 
Eretum,  i.  181 

Expenses,   of  living,  in  the  Roman 
castelli,  i.  28 


Fajola,  La,  i.  87 

Falacrino,  ii.  161 

Falacrinum,  ii.  141 

Falerium  Novum,  ii.  42 

Falerium  Vetus,  ii.  36 

Fallen,  ii.  40 — 42 

Fara,  ii.  25 

Farfa,  ii.  21 — 31 

Famese,  ii.  338 

Famese,  Cardinal  Odoardo,  chapel 

of  Grotta  Ferrata  built  by,  i.  127 
Famese,  family  of, — their  palace  at 

Caprarola,  ii.  68 


328 


INDEX. 


Ferentino,  station  of,  i.  250  ;  town 
of,  i.  255 — 257 

Ferentinum,  ii.  105 

Ferento,  ii.  105 

Feriae  Latinse,  i.  85 

Feronia,  the  fountain  of,  ii.  250 

Fescennium,  ii.  55 

Festa  degli  Artisti,  i.  163 

Fiano,  ii.  54 

Ficulea,  i.  179 

Fiora,  the  river,  ii.  329 

Fiunie  Conca,  ii.  273 

Fiume  Rapido,  ii.  207 

Fiumicino,  ii.  301 

Fons  Blandusiae,  i.  216 

Fossanuova,  ii.  257 

Fosso  de'  due  Fossi,  i.  133,  144 
dell'  Incastro,  ii.  278 

Frangipani,  the,  —  their  castle  at 
Olevano,  i.  291  ;  their  betrayal  of 
Conradin  at  Astura,  ii.  271 

Frascati,  i.  99 — 107 

Fregellae,  ii.  301 

Frosinone,  ii.  21 

Fucino,  Lago  di,  ii.  t86  • 

Fumone,  i.  254  ;  ii.  7. 


Gaetani,  family  of, — property  of,  at 
Ninfa,  i.  236  ;  history  and  me- 
morials of,  at  Anagni,  i.  260,  266  ; 
palace  of,  at  Cisterna,  ii.  244 ; 
property  of,  at  Sermoneta,  ii,  246  ; 
property  of,  at  Monte  Circello,  ii. 
254  ;  castle  of,  at  Astura,  ii.  272 

Galera,  i.  144 

Galleria,  di  Sopra,  Albano,  i.  69 
di  Sotto,  Albano,  i.  75 

Gallese,  ii.  54 

GalHcano,  i.  160 

Gallo,  Marchese  del,  castle  of,  i.  209 

Gasperoni,  his  imprisonment  at  Ci- 
vita  Castellana,  ii.  36 

Gall,  Sir  William,  his  work  on 
Roman  Topography,  i.  17 

Genazzano,  i.  283 

Genzano,  i.  89 

Gonsalvi,  death  of  Cardinal,  i.  129 

Gran  Sasso  d'  Italia,  ii.  163 

Graviscse,  ii.  328 

Grazioli,  Duke  of,  i.  164 

Greco,  Stammatico,  picture  at  Su- 
biaco  by,  i.  313 

Gregorovius,  works  of,  i.  17 

Grosseto,  ii.  349 


Grotta  della  Maga,  ii.  250 

Ferrata,  i.  123 

Marozza,  i.  181 
Guadagnolo,  i.  291 

H. 

Hadrian,  his  villa  near  Palestrina,  i. 
277  ;  his  villa  near  Tivoli,  i.  188 

Handbooks,  the  best  on  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Rome,  i.  18 

Hermitage   of   Pietro    Murrone,    ii. 

173 
Horace,  farm  of,  i.  210—218 

I. 
Ibi,  Sinibaldo,  picture  at  Orvieto  by, 

ii-  133 
II  Toraccio,  ii.  273 
Incile,  ii.  188 

Infiorata,  festival  of  the,  i.  91 
Interamna,  ii.  140 
Ischia,  ii.  338 
Isernia,  ii.  179 
Isola,  ii.  202 
Isola  Farnese,  i.  132 
Isola  Sacra,  ii.  299 
Isole  Natanti,  Lago  dei,  i.  186 


J- 


Jenne,  i.  316 
Joanopolis,  i.  39 


Labicum,  i.  119 

Lacordaire,  the  profession  of,  ii.  89 

Lacus  Sabatinus,  i.  152 

La  Civita,  i.  268 

La  Fallonica,  ii.  351 

La  Maiella,  ii.  163,  170 

La  Mercareccia,  ii.  327 

La  Querela,  ii.  88 

La  Solfatara,  ii.  280 

La  Storta,  i.  132,  143 

La  Vaccareccia,  i.  140 

Lago  di  Albano,  i.  67 

Bolsena,  ii.  100 

Bracciano,  i.  147 

Caldano,  ii.  350 

Caprolace,  ii.  273 

Castighone,  ii.  353 

Celano,  ii.  186 

Comufelle,  i.  116 


INDEX. 


329 


T.4lgo  di — continued. 

Fogliano,  ii.  273 

Fucino,  ii.  181,  186 

Gabii,  i.  157 

La  Posta,  ii.  203 

Lago  Morto,  i.  146 

Mezzano,  ii.  339 

Nemi,  i.  88 

Paolo,  ii.  256 

Pie  di  Lugo,  ii.  143 

Regillus,  i.  116 

Scanno,  ii".  177 
Lancellotti,  family  of, — their  villa  at 
Frascati,   i.   105  ;   their  palace  at 
Velletri,  i.  221 
Lante,  family  of, — their  villa  at  Bag- 

naja,  ii.  89 
Lautulae,  pass  of,  ii.  253 
Lavinium,  ii.  281 
Le  Caldane,  ii.  353 
Le  Casacce  del  Bacuco,  ii.  105 
Le  Frattocchie,  i.  53 
Le  Molette,  the  river,  i.  185 
Le  Vene,  ii.  153 
Licenza,  the,  i.  209 

village  of,  i.  211 
Ligorio,  Pirro,  the  architect  of  the 

Villa  d'  Este,  i.  203 
Lionessa,  ii.  160 
Lippi,  Filippo,  tomb  of,  ii.  147 
Liris,  falls  of  the,  ii.  202 
LoSchioppo,  ii.  191 
Lo  Spagna,  his  frescoes  at  Todi,  ii. 
143  ;  at  Spoleto,  ii.  147,  149,  150  ; 
at  S.  Giacomo,  ii.  151 ;  at  Trevi,  ii. 
156 
Lomentana,  Ponte,  i.  178 
Loreto,  ii.  241 
Luco,  ii.  189 
Lucus  Ferentinae,  i.  130 
Lunghezza,  i.  164 


M. 

1 

Maccarese,  ii.  301 

Madonna  del  Tufo,  shrine  of,  i.  82 

Madonna  di  Buon  Consiglio,  shrine 

of,  i.  283 
^laglian  Sabina,  ii.  33 

Vlagliano,  ii.  347 

i^agliano,  river,  i.  185 

lalaria,  the,  i.  26,  145 

landela,  i.  209 

krcian  Aqueduct,   near  Tivoli,  i. 
206 


Marcigliana    Vecchia,    the    site    of 

Crustumerium  at,  i.  182 
Marco  da  Siena,  frescoes  at  Monte 

Cassinoby,  ii.  229 
Marino,  i.  130 
Marrana,  river,  i.  185 
Marsica,  the,  ii.  182 
Marta,  the  river,  ii.  328 
Martana,  island  of,  ii.  100 
Massa,  ii.  356 
Massimi,  family  castle  at  Arsoli,   i. 

320 ;  dukes  of  Rignano,  ii.  52 
Matthias,  Maria  de,  i.  267 
Mazzaroppi,    Marco,  —  frescoes    at 

Monte  Cassino  by,  ii.  228 
MeduUia,  Latin  city  of,  i.  178 
Memmi,  Luca,  his  picture  at  Orvieto, 

ii.  127 
Mengs,  Raphael,  picture  at  Sulmona 

by,  ii.  136 
Mentana,  i.  179 
Mentorella,  i.  292,  295 
Mesa,  ii.  248 
Mignone,  river,  ii.  314 
Minio,  river,  ii.  314 
MioUis,  General,  his  works  at  Tivoli, 

i-  195 
Monica,  S.,  her  death  at  Ostia,  i  45 
Mons  Lucretilis,  i.  209 

Sacer,  i.  178 
Montalto,  ii.  329 
Monte  Affliano,  i.  190 

Algido,  i.  118 

Argentaro,  ii,  347 

di  Canino,  ii.  334 

Carpineto,  i.  317 

Cassino,  i.  208 — 230 

Catillo,  i.  198,  203 

Circello,  ii.  253 

Compatri,  i.  118 

di  Decima,  ii.  291 

Due  Torre,  i.  95 

Fortino,  i.  268 

Gennaro,  i.  218 

Gentile,  i.  179 

Giove,  i.  95 

di  Grano,  i.  97 

Libretti,  i.  209 

Luco,  ii.  150 

Migliore,  ii.  284 

Musino,  i.  140 

Peschiavatore,  i.  198 

Porzio,  i.  117,  121 

Rotondo,  i.  i8i 

Salviano,  ii.  191 

Somma,  ii.  145 


330 


INDEX. 


Montefiascone,  ii.  107 — no 
Monterozzi,  the, — of  Corneto,  ii.  317 
Montes  Corniculani,  i.  178,  186,  219 
Montopoli,  ii.  25 
Morolo,  i.  259 
Musignano,  ii.  334 

N. 

Nar,  the  river,  ii.  136 

Narni,  ii.  136 — 139 

Nemi,  i.  88 

Nepi,  ii.  58,  59 

Nepete,  ii.  58 

Nequinum,  ii.  136 

Nero,  his  death,  i.  170 — 173  ;  his 
residence  at  Subiaco,  i.  294 

Nero's  Tomb,  i.  131 

Nettuno,  ii.  268 

Ninfa,  i.  235 — 240 

Nomentana,  Ponte,  Torre,  i.  178 

Nomentum,  i.  180 

Norba,  i.  231 

Norcia,  in  the  Abruzzi,  ii.  160 

Norchia,  ii.  95 — 104 

Norma,  i.  233 

Novels,  about  Rome  and  its  sur- 
roundings, i.  17 


P. 


Palace  (Palazzo) — 

Barberini,  at  Palestrina,  i.  275 
Bruschi,  at  Corneto,  ii.  315 
of  Castel  Gandolfo,  i.  73 
Cesarini,  at  Genzano,  i.  90 
Cisterna,  ii.  244 
Chigi,  at  Ariccia,  i.  63 
atViterbo,  ii.  85 
Doria,  at  Valmontone,  i.  219 
of  Musignano,  ii.  334 
of  Theodoric  (ruined),  at  Terra- 

cina,  ii.  253 
Vincentini,  at  Rieti,  ii.  160 
Vitelleschi,  at  Corneto,  ii.  315 

Palazzuola,  i.  82 

Palestrina,  i,  269 — 281 

Paliano,  i.  288 

Palo,  ii.  302 

Palombara,  i.  178 

Pan  di  Neve,  i.  84 

Pandataria,  island  of,  i.  227 

Panetella  di  S.  Nicolo,  i.  150 

Papal  Palace,  Anagni,  i.  260 

Castel  Gandolfo,  i.  72 


Papal  Palace,  Orvieto,  ii.  120 
Subiaco,  i.  317 
Viterbo,  ii.  •-j'j 
Papignia,  i.  97  ;  ii.  141 
Papigno,  ii.  158 
Parco  dei  Barberini,  i.  122 
Chigi,  i.  64 
Colonna,  i.  131 
Passerano,  i.  206 
Patrica,  i.  259 
Pedum,  i.  i6o| 
Pelasgic  Remains,  i.  22 
Pentima,  ii.  179 
Pescina,  ii.  190 
Petrella,  ii.  162 
Pie  de  Lugo,  ii.  143 
Pifferari,  the  exile  from  Rome  of  the, 

i.  14 
Pino,  rivulet,  i.  133 
Piombino,  ii.  350 
Piperno,  ii.  257 
Pitigliano,  ii.  339 
Plautii,  tomb  of  the,  i.  187 
Poggio  Catino,  ii.  25 
Mirteto,  ii.  25 
Reale,  i.  136 
Polo,  i.  218 
Porapeo,  ii.  25 
Ponte  dell"  Abbadia,  ii.  330 
deir  Acquoria,  i.  200 
S.  Antonio,  i.  281 
alia  Catena,  i.  230 
dell  Isola,  i.  134 
Lucano,  i.  187 
Mammolo,  i.  184 
Nomentana,  i.  178 
Nona,  i.  155 
Salara,  i.  168 
Sodo,  i.  134 
Pontecorvo,  ii.  241 
Pontine  Marshes,  ii.  247 — 250 
Ponza,  island  of,  i,  226 
Popoli,  ii.  170 
Populonia,  ii.  351 
Porcigliano,  ii.  287 
Portella,  frontier  gateway  of,  ii.  253 
Porto,  ii.  296 — 299 
Porto  d'Anzio,  ii.  263 — 267 
d'Ercole,  ii.  347 
Falese,  ii.  350 
di  Paolo,  ii.  256 
di  Troja,  ii.  350 
Posi,  i.  259 

Pozzo  di  Santulla,  iL  13 
Pratica,  ii-.  281 
Prato  Rotondo,  i.  169 


INDEX. 


331 


Precious  Blood,  the  Order  of  the,  i.  j 

267 
Privemum,  ii.  257 
Punicum,  Roman  station  of,  ii.  313 
Puntone  del  Castrato,  ii.  313 
Pyrgi.  ii.  313 

Q. 

Querquetiila,  i.  161 
Quintiliolo,  i.  198 

R. 

Rapinium,  Roman  station  of,  ii.  314 

Regillus,  Lake  of,  i.  116 

Rieti,  ii.  158 

Rig^ano,  ii.  52 

Rio  Torto,  ii.  279 

Ripoli,  i.  190 

Rocca  di  Cavi,  i.  291 

Circea,  ii.  254 

Giovane,  i.  209 

Gorga,  i.  259 

Janula,  ii.  208 

Massima,  i.  226 

di  Mezzo,  ii.  181 

di  Papa,  i.  82 

Priora,  i.  118 
Ronciglione,  ii.  64 
Rosa  S. ,  di  Viterbo,  ii.  83 
Rospigliosi,    family  of, — their  pro- 
perty at  Colonna,  i.  T19  ;  at  Za- 
garola,  their  title,  i.  161 
Roviano,  i.  320 
Ruspoli,   family  of,— their  property 

at  Cervetri,  their  title,  ii.  304 
Russelae,  ii.  349 
Rustica,  i.  163 


Sacro  Speco,  monastery  of  the,  i.  306 
Salt  Mines,  near  Ostia,  i.  41 
S.  Agostino,  tower  of,  ii.  314 

Angelo  in  Cappoccia,  i.  178,  186, 
219 

Appetite,  ii.  181 

Bartolomeo,  i.  127 

Benedetto,  ii.  190 

Clementino,  ii.  329 

Cosimato,  i.  320 

Domenico  Abkte,  ii.  194 

Elia,  ii.  56 

Felice,  ii.  253 


S.  Felice,  island  of,  i.  226 

Germano,  ii.  206 

Giacomo,  ii.  151 

Giorgio,  the  family  of, — at  Bieda, 
ii.  99 

Giovanni,  Lago  di,  i.  186 

Giulianello,  i.  226 

Maria  in  Forcassi,  ii.  95 

Maria  della  villa,  i.  277 

Marinella,  ii.  313 

Oreste,  ii.  44 

Pietro,  i.  280 

Procula,  ii.  279 
•  Severa,  ii.  312 

Vito,  i.  290 

Vittorino,  ii.  161 
Saturnia,  ii.  341 

Saturnian  Cities,  the  five,  i.  259* 
Savelli,   castle  of  the,    i.  99  ;   their 

•fortress  at  •Palombara,  i.  178 
Scalza,  Ippolito, — his  works  at  Or- 

vieto,  ii.  125,  132 
Scaptia,  i.  161 
Schizzanello,  ii.  284 
Scholastica,  Convent  of,  at  Subiaco, 

i.  301 — 305 ;   grave  of,  at  Monte 

Cassino,  ii.  229 
Sciarra,    family  of,    their  castle   at 

koviano,  i.  320 
Scrofano,  i.  141 
Scurgola,  i.  259  ;  ii.  184 
Segni,  i.  241 — 247 
Sermoneta,  ii.  245—247 
Setia,  ii.  256 
Sette  Basse,  i.  97 
Vene,  i.  142 
Sezza,  ii.  256 
Sforza-Cesarini,  family  of, — gardens 

and  villa  of,  atGenzano,  i.  90;  pos- 
sessions of,  at  Segni,  i.  242 
Signorelli,  Luca,  his  works  atOrvieto, 

ii.  127 — 137  ^ 
Silva  Laurentina,  the,  ii.  275 
Simbriviae  Aquae,  i.  294 
Simone,  church  at  Vicovaro  built  by, 

i.  205  ;  his  death,  i.  207 
Solfatara,  the,  near  Ardea,  ii.  280; 

near  Tivoli,  i.  181 
Sonnino,  ii.  260,  261 
Sora,  ii.  192 
Soracte,  ii.  42 — 52 
Sorano,  ii.  339 
Soriano,  ii.  54 
Sovana,  ii.  339 
Spaccato,  i.  190 
Spina  Cristi,  the,  i.  250 


332 


INDEX. 


Spoleto,  ii.  145 — 151 

Stagno,  the,  of  Ostia,  i.  41,  47 

Storta,  rivulet,  i.  133 

Strada  del  Diavolo,  i.  53 

Stretti  di  S.  Luigi,  ii.  178 

Strozzi,  the, — their  property  at  Lun- 

ghezza,  i.  164 
Subiaco,  i.  294 — 318 
Sugareto,  the,  ii.  280 
Sulmona,  ii.  171 — 177 
Superstitions  of  the  Campagna,  i.  30 
Supino,  i.  259 
Sutri,  ii.  59 — 64 


Tarquinii,  ii.  315 
Tartari,  Lago  dei,  i.  186 
Telamone,  ii.  349 
Temple  of —  • 

Castor  and  Pollux,  at  Cori,  i.  229 
the  Clitumnus,  ii.  153 
Equestrian    Fortune,   at    Porto 

d'  Anzio,  ii.  262 
Esculapius,  at  Porto  d'  Anzio, 

ii.  264 
Fortune,  at  Palestrina,  i.  271 
Hercules,  at  Tivoli,  i.  200,  202 
Juno,  at  Civita  Lavinia,  i.  95 
Juno,  at  Gabii,  i.  156 
Jupiter  Latiaris,   on  the  Alban 

Mount,  i,  86 
Leucothea,  at  Pyrgi,  ii.  313 
Minerva,  at  Cori,  i.  229 
the  Sibyl,  at  Tivoli,  i.  194 
the  Sun,  on  the  Circean  Mount, 

ii.  254 
Tiburtus,  at  Tivoli,  i.  195 
Tosse,  at  Tivoli,  i.  200 
Vacuna,  at  Rocca  Giovane,   i. 
209 
Temple  Tombs  at  Norchia,  ii.  103 
Terni,  ii.  140 
Terracina,  ii.  250 — 253 
Testament,  the,  at  Ferentino,  i.  258 
Teverone,  the  river,  i.  185 
Theatre — 

of  Civita  Lavinia,  i.  95 
of  Gabii,  i.  157 
of  Tusculum,  i.  107 
Tiber,  the  river  described,  ii.  288 — 

290 
Tibur,  history  of,  i.  190 — 192 
Timone,  river,  ii.  333 
Todi,  ii.  143  . 
Toleria,  i.  268 


Tolfa,  ii.  311 
Tomb  of — 

Aruns,  i.  59 

the  Buonapartes  at  Frascati,   i. 

105 
C.  Msenius  Bassus  near  Tivoli, 

i.  207 
Cardinal  Altieri  at  Albano,  i.  78 
Cardinal  de  Braye  at  Orvieto,  ii. 

133 
Charles  Edward  at  Frascati,  i. 

99 
Consular,  at  Palazzuola,  i.  82 
P.  V.  Marianus,  i.  131 
Pompey,  at  Albano,  i.  56 
Torano,  ii.  162 
Torfea,  ii.  25 

Torlonia,  family  of, — at  Frascati,  i. 
103 ;  at  Bracciano,  i.  149 ;  at 
Gabii,  i.  151  ;  at  Musignano,   ii. 

334- 
Torre  (tower) — 

della  Bella  Marsilia,  ii.  349 

Cervaro,  i.  163 

Flavia,  ii.  312 

Lupara,  i.  179 

Nuova,  i.  97 

Paterno,  ii.  284 

Salara,  i.  169 

Sapienza,  i.  155,  162 

degli  Schiavi,  i.  154 

Tre  Teste,  i.  155,  162 
Toscanella,  ii.  335 — 338 
Trasacco,  ii.  190 
Trevignano,  i.  152 
Tribucci,  ii.  26 
Trisulti,  ii.  15 — 19 
Tuder,  ii.  144 

Turchina,  hill  of,  ii.  317,  326 
Tusculum,  i.  107 
Tutia,  river,  i.  185,  186 


V. 


Val  del  Paradiso,  i.  219 
Valentano,  ii.  338 
Vallericcia,  i.  60 
Valle  Santa,  i.  318 
Valmontone,  i.  268 
Veii,  i.  133 — 141 
Vehno,  the  river,  ii.  140 
Velletri,  i.  220 — 225 
Venafro,  ii.  179 
'  Veroli,  ii.  10 
Vespasian,    the  Emperor, — born  at 


INDEX-. 


333 


Amitemum,  ii.  i6i ;  died  at  Aqu3e 
Cutiliae,  ii.  162 
Vetralla,  ii.  94 
Vetulonia,  ii.  348 
Via  Appia  Nova,  i.  52 
Appia  Vecchia,  i.  53 
Ardeatina,  ii.  280 
Aurelia,  ii.  313,  348 
Cassia,  i.  181 
Collatina,  i.  164 
Constantina,  i.  201 
Ficulea,  i.  179 
Flaminia,  ii.  135 
Gabina,  i.  154 
Labicana,  i.  121 
Latina,  i.  52 
Laurentina,  ii.  285,  287 
Nomentana,  177,  181 
Praenestina,  i.  154,  160 
Salara,  i.  177,  181 
Severiana,  i.  48 
Sublacensis,  i.  318 
Valeria,  ii.  186,  318 
Vicarello,  i.  159 
Vicovaro,  i.  207 
Vignanello,  ii.  54 

Vignola,  his  work  at  Caprarola,  ii. 
69  ;  at  Bagnaja,  ii.  89  ;  at  Rieti, 
ii.  159 
Villa  Adriana,  i.  188 — 190 

Aldobrandini,  at  Frascati,  i.  103 
Allien,  at  Albano,  i.  76 
Altieri,  at  Oriolo,  i.  152 
of  Attilius  Regulus,  i.  97 
Barberini,  at  Albano,  i.  71 
Braschi,  at  Tivoli,  i.  204 
of  Cato  the  Younger,  i.  117 
of  Catullus,  at  Tivoli,  i.  205 
of  Cicero,  at  Frascati,  i.  106 


Villa  Doria,  at  Albano,  i.  79 
D'Este,  at  Tivoli,  i.  203 
Falconieri,  at  Frascati,  i.  105 
of  the  Gens  Cassia,  at  Tivoli.  i. 

206. 
Imperial,  of  the  Sette  Basse,  i. 

97 
I  .ante,  at  Bagnaja,  ii.  89 
of  Maecenas,  at  Tivoli,  i.  199 
Mondragone,  at  Frascati,  i.  115 
of  Nero,  at  Porto  d'Anzio,  ii. 

264 
Pallavicini,  at  Frascati,  i.  103 
of  Phaon,  i.  169 
Rufinella,  at  Frascati,  i.  105 
Savorelli,  at  Sutri,  ii.  63 
Sora,  at  Frascati,  i.  114 
Tavema,  at  Frascati,  i.  114 
Torlonia,  at  Frascati,  i,  103 
of  Vopiscus,  at  Tivoli,  i.  197 

Vitalian,  S.,  his  statue  at  Segni,  i. 
245 

Viterbo,  ii.  75—87 

Viterbo,  Lorenzo  di,  frescoes  by,  ii. 
81 

Vitorchiano,  ii.  105 

Volci,  ii.  329—333 

U. 

Ufente,  the  river,  ii.  249 
Ulmanus,  the,  i.  185 


Z. 

Zagarola,  i.  161 

Zuccheri,  the, — their  vi^orks  at  Capra- 
rola, ii.  71  ;  at  Bagnaja,  ii.  90 


TIBTCB  tMO  CO.,  PBINTEK8,  CITT    BOAD,   U>NIN>V. 


332  tge  same  author. 

CITIES  OF  NORTHERN  AND 
CENTRAL  ITALY. 

Intended  as  a  Companion  to  all  those  parts  of  Italy  which 
lie  between  the  Alps  and  the  Districts  described  in 
"  Days  near  Rome." 

With  numerous  Illustrations. 

Two  Vols.,  Crown  8vo. 

[In  the  Press. 

WALKS  IN  ROME. 

Fourth  Edition.     2  Vols.     Crown  8vo.,  21s. 

"The  best  handbook  of  the  city  and  environs  of  Rome  ever  published.  .  .  . 
Cannot  be  too  much  commended." — Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

"This  book  supplies  the  peculiar  sort  of  knowledge  which  the  traveller  in  Rome 
evidently  needs.  He  does  not  want  a  mere  guide-book  to  mark  the  localities,  or 
a  mere  compendious  history  to  recall  the  most  interesting  associations.  He  wants 
a  sympathetic  and  well-informed  friend  who  has  himself  been  over  the  places 
described,  and  has  appreciated  them  with  the  same  mingled  sentiments  of  inquisi- 
tiveness,  reverence,  and  inexplicable  historical  longing  with  which  the  traveller 
of  taste  must  approach  a  city  of  such  vast  and  heterogeneous  attractions  as  Rome." — 
Westminster  Revieau. 

"This  book  is  sure  to  be  very  useful.  It  is  thoroughly  practical,  and  is  the  best 
guide  that  yet  has  been  offered." — Daily  News. 

"  Mr  Hare's  book  fills  a  real  void,  and  gives  to  the  tourist  all  the  latest  discoveries 
and  the  fullest  information  bearing  on  that  most  inexhaustible  of  subjects,  the  city  of 

Rome It  is  much  fuller  than  '  Murray,'  and  any  one  who  chooses  may  now 

know  how  Rome  really  looks  in  sun  or  shade." — Spectator. 

"  The  real  richness  of  Rome  as  well  as  its  interest  are  known  only  to  those  who 
stay  a  long  time  there ;  but  for  such,  or  even  for  those  whose  visit  is  a  brief  one,  we 
know  no  single  work  that  can  replace  this  of  Mr  Hare.  We  heartily  recommend  it 
to  past  and  future  visitors  to  Rome  ;  they  will  find  it  a  condensed  library  of  inform- 
ation about  the  Eternal  City." — Atlantic  Monthly. 

III. 

WANDERINGS  IN  SPAIN. 

With  Illustrations.     Third  Edition.     Crown  8vo.,  io.y.  6c^. 

"  We  recollect  no  book  that  so  vividly  recalls  the  country  to  those  who  have  visited 
it,  and  we  should  recommend  intending  tourists  to  carry  it  with  them  as  a  companion 
of  travel." — Times. 

"  Mr  Hare's  book  is  admirable.  We  are  sure  no  one  will  regret  making  it  the 
companion  of  a  Spanish  journey.  It  will  bear  reading  repeatedly  when  one  is  moving 
among  the  scenes  it  describes — no  small  advantage  when  the  travelling  library  is 
scanty." — Saturday  Review. 

"  Here  is  the  ideal  book  of  travel  in  Spain  ;  the  book  which  exactly  anticipates  the 
requirements  of  everybody  who  is  fortunate  enough  to  be  go^ng  to  that  enchanted 
land ;  the  book  which  ably  consoles  those  who  are  not  so  happy,  by  supplying  the 
imagination  from  the  daintiest  and  most  delicious  of  its  stores." — Spectator. 

"  Since  the  publication  of  '  Castilian  Days,'  by  the  American  diplomat,  Mr  John 
Hay,  no  pleasanter  or  more  readable  sketches  have  fallen  under  our  notice." — 
A  thenceum. 


DALDY,  ISBISTER  &  CO.,  56,  LUDGATE  HILL. 


DAYS  NEAR  ROME 


TWO  VOLS.—Il. 


DAYS   NEAR    ROME 


By  AUGUSTUS  J.  C.  HARE, 

AUTHOB  OK  "WAF.KS  IN   ROME,"    "MEMORIALS  OP  A  QUIET  LIFE,   ETC. 


:it!)  5IIu5tration5. 


TWO     VOLUMES. II. 


PHILADELPH lA : 

PORTER    &    COATES, 

822   Chestnut  Street. 

1875. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

PAGB 
THE    HERNICAN    MONASTERIES    AND   THE    GROTTO   OF    COLLE 

PARDO 7 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

FARFA 22 

CHAPTER  XXn. 

CIVITA  CASTELLANA  AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD  ...         32 

CHAPTER  XXin. 

THE  CIMINIAN  HILLS — NEPI,  SUTRI,  AND  CAPRAROLA  .  .         56 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

VITERBO   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD 74 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

MONTEFIASCONE,  BOLSENA,  AND   ORVIETO  .  .  .  .       I05 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

NARNI   AND  TERNI I35 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

SPOLETO  AND  THE   CLITUMNUS  ......      145 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PAGB 
IN    THE   ABRUZZI    (ABRUZZO   ULTERIORE   II.)         .  .  .  •       ^57 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

IN   THE   MARSICA — THE   LAGO   FUCINO l8o 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

SORA,    AND   THE   LAND   OF   CICERO I9I      • 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

MONTE  CASSINO  , 20$ 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

AQUINO   AND    PONTECORVO 233 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

THE   PONTINE   MARSHES 243 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE   LATIN    SHORE 262 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE  DESCENT  OF  THE  TIBER — PORTO  AND  FIUMICINO  .  .      288 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

CERVETRI 302 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

CORNETO 312 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

VOLCI    (PONTE   DEL   ABBADIA) 328 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

TOSCANELLA  AND  CENTRAL  ETRURIA 335 

CHAPTER  XL. 

THE    ETRUSCAN   SHORE a      343 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  HERNICAN  MONASTERIES  AND  THE  GROTTO 
OF  COLLEPARDO. 

(The  best  way  of  reaching  these  places  is  from  the  station  of  Frosi 
none  on  the  Naples  line  ;  a  carriage  and  two  horses  may  be  engaged 
there  for  the  two  days'  excursion,  and  costs  about  40  francs,  but  an  exact 
understanding  must  be  made  at  the  station  with  the  Vetturino  as  to 
what  is  required.  There  are  very  tolerable  though  humble  hotels,  and 
with  very  obliging  and  honest  people,  at  Alatri  and  Frosinone.) 

ON  a  beautiful  April  morning  we  reached  Frosinone  by 
rail  from  Rome.  The  country  was  in  its  freshest,  bright- 
est green.  At  the  station  we  found  plenty  of  carriages  waiting, 
and  were  soon  leaving  the  town  of  Frosinone  behind  on  its 
high  isolated  hill,  and  advancing  fast  into  the  mountains, 
through  a  rich  corn-clad  country.  On  the  left,  the  most 
conspicuous  feature  was  always  Fumone,  a  knot  of  castellated 
buildings  and  cypresses  on  a  lofty  conical  hill,  where,  in  a 
prison,  which  none  who  look  upon  it  can  help  feeling  \in- 
utterably  desolate,  the  dethroned  Coelestine,  who  had  been 
dragged  to  the  papal  throne  from  his  hermitage  in  the 
Abruzzi,  was  forced  by  his  successor  Boniface  VIII. ,  at  the 
age  of  81,  to  spend  the  last  ten  months  of  his  life. 

"  Like  the  meanest  son  of  the  Church,  Coelestine  fell  at  the  feet  of  his 
successor  ;  his  only  prayer,  a  prayer  urged  with  tears,  was  that  he  might 
be  permitted  to  return  to  his  desert  hermitage.    Boniface  addressed  him 


8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

in  severe  language.  He  was  committed  to  safe  custody  in  the  castle 
of  Fumone,  watched  day  and  night  by  soldiers,  like  a  prisoner  of  state. 
His  treatment  is  described  as  more  or  less  harsh,  according  as  the  writer 
is  more  or  less  favourable  to  Boniface.  By  one  account  his  cell  was  so 
narrow  that  he  had  not  room  to  move  ;  where  his  feet  stood  when  he 
celebrated  mass  by  day,  there  his  head  reposed  at  night.  He  obtained 
with  difficulty  permission  for  two  of  his  brethren  to  be  with  him  ;  but  so 
unwholesome  was  the  place,  that  they  were  obliged  to  resign  their  cha- 
ritable office.  According  to  another  statement,  the  narrowness  of  his 
cell  was  his  own  choice  ;  he  was  permitted  to  indulge  in  this  meritorious 
misery  ;  his  brethren  were  allowed  free  access  to  him  ;  he  suffered  no 
insult,  but  was  treated  with  the  utmost  humanity  and  respect.  Death 
released  him  before  long  from  his  spontaneous  overforced  wretchedness. 
He  was  seized  with  a  fever,  generated  perhaps  by  the  unhealthy  con- 
finement, accustomed  as  he  had  been  to  the  free  mountain  air.  He  died 
May  19,  1296,  and  was  buried  with  ostentatious  publicity,  that  the 
world  might  know  that  Boniface  now  reigned  without  a  rival,  in  the 
church  of  Ferentino.  Countless  miracles  were  told  of  his  death  :  a 
golden  cross  appeared  to  the  soldiers  shining  above  the  door  of  his  cell  : 
his  soul  was  seen  by  a  faithful  disciple  visibly  ascending  to  heaven.  His 
body  became  the  cause  of  a  fierce  quarrel,  and  of  a  pious  crime.  It  was 
stolen  from  the  grave  at  Ferentino,  and  carried  to  Aquila.  An  insurrec- 
tion of  the  people  of  Ferentino  was  hardly  quelled  by  the  Bishop  on  the 
assurance,  after  the  visitation  of  the  tomb,  that  the  heart  of  the  saint  had 
been  fortunately  left  behind.  The  canonization  of  Ccelestine  was 
granted  by  Clement  V." — Milnian' s  Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity. 

Many  other  villages  glittered  on  the  distant  hills,  and, 
amongst  the  most  conspicuous  of  them,  Arpino,  the  birth- 
place of  Cicero,  which  overlooks  the  beautiful  valley  of  the 
Liris.  The  nearer  country  now  became  more  stony  and 
desolate,  but  the  road  was  enlivened  by  gaily-dressed  groups 
of  pilgrims  returning  from  a  Madonna-festa  at  Paliano,  who 
met  us  with  the  kindly  greeting  "  Santa  Maria  e  San  Giu- 
seppe vi  salutano."  At  length  on  the  edge  of  a  hill,  like  one  of 
the  uplands  of  Burgundy,  we  came  suddenly  in  view  of  the 
great  monastery  of  Casamari,  which  is  said,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  Fossanuova,  to  be  the  finest  monastic  building 


CASAMARI, 


in  Latium.     It   was  with  almost  a  surprise  that  we  found 
a  perfectly  pure  Gothic  building,  with  a  church  like  a  small 


Casamari. 

northern  cathedral,  in  this  Italian  wilderness.  It  is  utterly 
lonely,  not  even  a  peasant's  cottage  near  it,  a  mass  of  grey 
buildings,  standing  above  the  softly  gliding  stream  of 
the  Amasena.  An  aqueduct  crosses  the  valley  and  frames 
the  first  view  of  the  church  and  gateway.     The  latter  is  a 


Gate  of  Casaman. 

grand  round  arched  portal,  with  a  succession  of  small  arches 


lo  JDA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

above  it.  Within,  facing  a  little  lawn,  are  the  western  fa9ade 
of  the  church,  and  the  grey  front  of  the  monastery,  which 
now  contains  only  30  monks  instead  of  the  300  to  which  it  is 
accustomed. 

**In  contemplating  such  a  monastery  as  this,  so  separated  from  the 
world,  a  peculiar  feeling  is  awakened.  For  nowhere  is  the  past  so  per- 
fectly real  and  almost  tangible.  Time  seems  indeed  to  have  stood  still, 
and  the  moral  atmosphere  of  a  long  past  age  and  race  to  have  remained 
collected  here.  The  former  occupations  of  the  monks,  singing,  prayer, 
silence,  work,  they  continue  to  the  present  day,  in  the  same  garb,  in  the 
same  spot,  and  with  the  same  monotonous  activity.  The  history  of  the 
world  has  changed,  but  they  take  no  part  in  it,  it  is  enough  for  them 
that  the  church,  the  bishops,  the  pope  at  Rome,  continue  as  before. 
Their  immediate  surroundings  are  unchanged,  Veroli,  Posi,  and  San 
Giovanni,  with  their  churches  and  saints,  still  stand  as  before  ;  pilgrims 
knock  at  the  door  of  the  monastery  as  before.  The  fear  of  the  Saracens, 
the  robber  counts,  and  the  condottieri  no  longer  torments  them,  but 
has  given  way  to  the  dread  of  revolution,  more  pitiless  than  robber- 
chief  or  Saracen.  For  formerly  it  was  a  question  of  plundering  and 
devastation  with  fire  and  sword,  now  it  is  existence  or  non-existence. 
Besides  this  the  monastic  lands  are  diminished,  and  thereby  the  external 
influence  of  the  church  contracted.  Indeed  such  a  monasteiy  is  like 
a  parchment  chronicle,  wherein  the  miniatures,  like  shadows,  are  ani- 
mated with  life." — Gregorovius. 

Tradition  derives  the  name  of  Casamari  from  casa  amara, 
the  bitter  house,  because  of  the  perpetual  silence  which  is  en- 
forced there ;  but  the  name  is  really  Casa  Marii,  since  it 
was  founded  by  a  member  of  the  famous  family  of  Arpino. 
It  first  belonged  to  Benedictines,  but  was  given  to  Cister- 
cians in  1 152  by  Eugenius  III. 

The  foundation-stone  of  the  church  was  laid  in  1203.  It 
is  approached  by  a  staircase  which  leads  to  an  arched  por- 
tico. Here,  on  the  right,  is  a  statue  of  Pius  VI.,  and,  oppo- 
site it,  an  inscription  in  honour  of  the  benefits  conferred 
upon  Casamari  by  Pius  IX.     The  interior  is  lofty,  simple, 


VEROLL  II 

and  severe.  The  delicate  cream-coloured  tint  of  the  traver- 
tine is  as  fresh  as  when  it  was  built  There  are  no  pictures, 
niches,  or  chapels,  and  it  might,  as  Gregorovius  observes,  be 
a  Protestant  cathedral  in  Germany.  The  nave  is  separated 
from  the  aisles  by  seven  clustered  columns,  on  the  capitals 
of  which  are  some  curious  masonic-marks.  At  the  fifth  column 
a  screen  of  wrought-iron  cuts  off  the  dausura.  On  the  floor 
are  curious  chains  of  tiles  ornamented  with  the  bees  of  the 
Barberini. 

From  the  right  transept  we  entered  the  beautiful  cloister, 
surrounded  by  Romanesque  arches,  with  columns  all  differ- 
ent, as  at  the  Lateran.  The  ceiling  of  the  chapter-house  is 
supported  by  splendid  clustered  columns,  and  is  marvel- 
lously well  preserved.  Here  also  we  seemed  to  be  in  the 
north  :  and  it  was  unnatural  to  emerge  upon  the  stony  hill- 
side, and  look  upon  the  delicate  amethystine  distances, 
lighted  up  by  a  sky  without  any  shadows.  Our  visit  was  a 
great  amusement  to  the  monks,  who  were  very  anxious  to 
make  the  most  of  their  lions.  Ladies  were  not  allowed  to 
see  the  chapter-house,  but  were  shown  the  ancient  vaulted 
Refectory  supported  by  huge  columns,  and  above  it  the 
Dormitory,  now  turned  into  a  vast  granary. 

As  the  sun  was  setting  we  drove  away  from  the  melan- 
choly valley  of  the  Amasena,  with  its  dismal  poplars,  and 
ascended  into  the  hills  towards  VeroU,  the  ancient  Verulse. 
This  is  a  magnificently  situated  city,  and  most  picturesque 
externally.  Our  horses  had  to  scramble  like  cats  up  its  semi- 
perpendicular  street,  and  finally  fell  down  on  one  another, 
which  gave  us  time  to  walk  out  beyond  the  gates  towards 
Rome,  and  see  the  last  after-glow  over  the  valley,  standing 
beneath  the  crowd  of  strangely  clustered  houses  and  old 


12  DAYS  NEAR  ROME . 

Eomanesque  churches  which  line  the  natural  rock-ramparts 
of  the  town.  There  is  a  great  Seminario  at  Veroli,  and  the 
road  was  crowded  with  ecclesiastics,  scholars  in  their  dif- 
ferent dresses  of  miniature  priests,  watched  over  by  their 
professors  ;  and  following  them  were  canons  and  curati,  and 
even  the  bishop  of  Veroli,  attended  by  his  footmen,  as  if  he 
were  taking  a  walk  on  the  Pincio. 

Alatri  had  a  weird  look  as  we  ascended  its  hill  in  the 
starlight :  the  Titanic  platform  of  the  Cyclopean  walls 
engraved  upon  the  clear  sky.  In  its  narrow  streets  few 
people  were  still  moving  and  work  was  over.  Only  some 
young  men  arm-in-arm  were  singing  stornelli  in  loud  ringing 
voices.  Close  under  the  shadow  of  the  old  fortress,  which 
forms  so  great  a  feature  of  the  street  with  its  Gothic  windows 
and  cornices,  we  found  a  little  inn,  kept  by  a  most  obliging 
landlady,  with  two  handsome  daughters  in  the  national 
dress. 

We  were  astir  early  in  the  morning,  and  went  up  the  hill, 
while  the  goats  were  being  milked  for  breakfast,  to  have 
another  look  at  the  grand  Cyclopean  walls,  and  by  the  time 
we  returned  all  Alatri  was  awake,  crowds  of  women  in  their  _ 
white  panni^  and  men  in  their  red  waistcoats,  pointed 
sandals,  and  with  bunches  of  flowers  stuck  in  their  high  felt 
hats,  were  thronging  the  streets,  and  the  chief  labour  of  life 
here  was  begun,  the  weaving  of  woollen  cloth  for  jackets  and 
the  great  gaily-striped  blankets  so  much  worn  by  the 
poorer  classes  in  this  district.  Our  horses  waited  for  us 
outside  the  gates,  for  they  would  have  fallen  on  the  lava 
pavement,  though  they  scrambled  easily  up  the  jagged 
rocks,  and  lanes  like  torrent  beds  of  loose  stones  piled  one 
upon  another,  to  which  we  afterwards  came.     Soon  after 


IL  POZZO  DI  SANTULLA.  '3 

leaving  Alatri,  the  bridle-road  into  the  mountains  enters  the 
wildest  country  imaginable :  no  vegetation,  save  here  and 
there  a  tuft  of  wild  lavender,  and  some  of  the  small  yellow 
marigolds  which  Italians  call  "  primo  fiore,"  grows  upon  the 
scorched  rocks.  The  path  skirts  a  ravine,  winding  high 
amongst  its  precipices,  where  a  false  step  would  be  fatal. 
Steeper  and  steeper  becomes  the  stony  way,  and  wilder  and 
wilder  the  valley,  till  at  length  Collepardo  comes  in  sight,  a 
large  village,  perched  on  a  cliff,  at  a  tremendous  height 
above  the  Cosa,  with  black  broken  walls  (proving  that  even 
this  poverty-stricken  place  was  not  safe  from  robbers),  a 
ruined  gate  earthquake-rent,  and  here  and  there  some  tiny 
gardens  and  a  few  sad-looking  olive-trees,  planted  where  the 
scanty  soil  will  allow. 

About  a  mile  from  the  village  (by  a  path  which  turns  to 
the  left  before  entering  it)  is  the  strange  hole  called  the 
Pozzo  di  Santulla.  It  is  a  pit  in  the  rock,  about  400  yards 
round  and  200  feet  deep,  hung  with  vast  stalactites  and 
fringed  at  the  top  with  ilex.  Once  (as  may  be  seen  in  a  pub- 
lished engraving  by  Don  Baldassare  Buoncompagni)  it  was 
filled  with  trees,  though  there  could  only  have  been  room 
for  very  few  :  now  all  these  are  gone,  and  the  bottom  is 
covered  with  grass.  It  is  quite  inaccessible  except  by  ropes, 
but  goats  are  occasionally  let  down,  and  drawn  up  when 
they  have  eaten  all  there  is.  If  a  tiger,  as  is  said,  once 
existed  here,  it  must  soon  have  died  of  hunger.  The  Pozzo, 
says  tradition,  was  once  a  vast  threshing-floor,  on  which  the 
people  impiously  threshed  com  upon  the  festa  of  the  Assump- 
tion, when  the  outraged  Madonna  caused  it  to  sink  into  the 
earth  with  all  who  were  upon  it,  and  it  remains  to  this  day  a 
memorial  of  her  wrath.     Alas  !   there  is  little  doubt  that  the 


14  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

pit  was  really  caused  by  some  strange  volcanic  action.  The 
account  of  this  place  in  Murray's  Handbook,  describing  it  as 
nearly  half  a  mile  in  circuit,  &c.  (it  is  here  called  "  Pozzo  d' 
Antullo  " — but  of  course  the  description  is  intended  for  La 
SantuUa),  is  strangely  exaggerated,  and  will  mislead  many 
travellers.  Still  it  is  a  spot  worth  visiting,  and  very  weird 
and  amazing.  The  graphic  description  of  Gregorovius 
apphes  to  its  former  condition. 

"Nature  has  brought  together  many  wonders  near  Collepardo,  for 
only  a  short  distance  from  the  stalactite  cave  is  that  celebrated  well  of 
Italy  the  Pozzo  di  SantuUa,  close  by  the  road  to  the  Carthusian  monas- 
tery. After  a  half-hour's  ride  (from  the  village)  between  gardens  and 
over  an  elevated  rocky  plain,  I  found  myself  suddenly  on  the  edge  of  a 
steep  circular  pit,  which  vividly  recalled  the  great  Latomia  of  Syracuse, 
About  fifteen  hundred  paces  in  circumference,  this  strange  well  sinks  to 
a  depth  of  over  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  and  presents  at  the  bottom  a 
dark  green  forest  of  tree-tops  and  creepers,  which  when  a  breeze  is 
wafted  down,  ripple  like  the  waves  of  the  sea. 

"  The  sun  shed  streaks  of  light  from  the  clearest  sky  into  its  depths, 
and  I  saw  white  butterflies  merrily  playing  about  over  this  sunken 
forest.  Blooming  creepers  hung  from  the  branches  of  these  trees,  which 
are  said  to  rise  more  than  thirty  feet  from  the  bottom,  and  yet  from 
above  only  look  like  bushes.  The  inaccessible  flowers,  the  wild  laby- 
rinthine paths  through  the  dark  thicket,  the  fluttering  of  the  birds  which 
inhabit  it,  entice  the  fancy,  which  represents  this  underground  magic 
grove  as  a  fairy  paradise  or  a  garden  for  Oberon  and  Titania.  There 
abundant  springs  take  their  mysterious  course,  and  keep  the  plants  con- 
tinually green,  while  the  basin  draws  down  and  collects  the  night  dews. 
With  admiration  the  eye  follows  the  walls  down  to  the  giddy  depth  ; 
they  take  strange  and  fantastic  forms  like  stalactites,  and  are  overgrown 
with  dwarf  oaks,  golden-flowered  broom,  and  mastick  bushes.  They  are 
adorned  with  all  colours  of  the  rainbow,  for  the  rock  is  now  soft  silver 
grey,  now  burning  red,  again  dark  blue,  yellow,  and  deep  black.  This 
well,  together  with  the  wild  mountain  scenery  which  surrounds  the 
horizon,  forms  a  scene  which  words  would  fail  to  express  ;  here,  the 
brown  district  of  Collepardo  looking  melancholy  behind  green  trees  ; 
there,  long  vistas  of  rocky  valleys ;  further  off,  gigantic  and  quiet  mountains 
majestic  in  form,  with  solitary  golden  eagles  soaring  round  the  untrodden 
peaks,  or  fantastic  mists  spreading  their  white  veils  around. 


APPROACH  TO  TRISULTF.  15 

'*  Wild-looking  herds,  sandal-men  of  the  mountains,  with  lance-like 
staves,  had  encamped  with  their  mountain  goats  on  the  edge  of  the  well, 
and  gave  life  to  the  magnificent  scene,  while  sturdy  boys  amused  them- 
selves with  rolling  down  stones.  They  fell  with  a  hollow  crash  into  the 
forest,  and  frightened  from  their  nests  the  grey  doves,  which  flew  from 
the  trees  with  the  speed  of  lightning,  and  dashed  to  and  fro  in  despair. 
Although  these  goatherds  told  me  that  a  tiger  lived  in  the  mysterious 
well,  yet  at  the  same  time  they  confessed  that  they  sometimes  let  down 
goats  by  ropes.  These  animals  find  there  water  and  herbs  in  abundance, 
and  remain  in  the  fcfrest  for  months,  until  they  are  brought  up  well  fed, 
for  the  men  go  down  by  ropes  to  bring  them  up  again." — Laieinische 
Sommer. 

Beyond  SantuUa  the  scenery  became  even  more  savage. 
The  path  wound  through  a  chaos  of  great  rocks  and 
descended  into  a  deep  gorge,  whence  it  mounted  again  to 
the  final  isolated  plateau  of  Trisulti,  close  under  the  snows, 
where  the  approach  to  a  great  religious  house  was  as  usual 
indicated  by  a  cross  perched  in  the  most  advantageous 
position.  Here  nothing  could  exceed  the  wildness  of  the 
scene,  as  we  looked  backwards  while  resting  on  the  platform 
of  the  cross  upon  the  rugged  billows  of  arid  rock,  melting 
into  blue  distances,  but  all  without  life.  Beyond,  however, 
it  was  different.  We  entered  a  wood  of  old  oaks  car- 
peted with  lilies,  and  their  boughs,  which  had  never 
known  the  axe,  green  with  the  ferns  which  had  taken  root 
upon  them.  A  wide  path,  beautifully  kept,  led  through  the 
wood  to  Alpine  pastures,  sheeted  with  mountain  flowers, 
gentians,  ranunculus,  squills,  and  auriculas.  Only  the  boom- 
ing of  its  bell  through  the  solemn  solitudes,  told  that  we 
were  near  the  monastery,  till  we  came  close  upon  it,  and  then 
a  vast  mass  of  buildings,  overtopped  by  a  church,  revealed 
itself  on  the  last  edge  of  the  rocky  plateau. 

Ladies  are  not  allowed  to  enter  Trisulti  without  a  special 
permission  from  the  Pope.     It  has  hitherto  been  one  of  the 


l6 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


few  great  monasteries  which  have  not  been  entirely  plun- 
dered by  the  Sardinian  government,  and  forty  monks  remain 
here,  leading  a  most  useful  and  beneficent  life,  honoured  by 


Trisulti. 

all  the  country  round,  the  friends  and  helpers  of  the  poor  of 
the  mountain  villages  in  sickness  or  in  sorrow. 

We  had  scarcely  reached  the  monastery  when  sounds  of 
Litanies  resounded  through  the  woods,  and  between  the  dis- 
tant oak-stems  appeared  the  head  of  a  procession  of  pilgrims 
which  was  just  arriving  from  Naples.  All  were  in  holiday 
costume,  and  carried  baskets.  The  priest  who  led  them 
knelt,  when  he  came  in  sight  of  Trisulti,  at  an  outside  chapel, 
and,  two  and  two,  all  the  multitude  knelt  behind  him,  and 
as  he  recited  the  Litany  of  the  saints,  their  "  Ora  pro  nobis  " 
echoed  through  the  mountains.  Afterwards  food  was  sent 
out  from  the  convent,  which  they  ate  seated  in  groups  upon 
the  grass,  and  then  continued  their  way  to  the  shrine  at 
Genazzano,  singing  in  cadences  as  they  moved. 


TRISULTL  17 

A  noble-looking  monk  in  white  robes,  with  a  long  white 
beard,  Padre  Gabrielli,  acted  as  guide  through  the  convent, 
which  is  exceedingly  clean  and  well  kept.  Fountains  sparkle 
in  every  court,  and  the  roads  within  the  walls,  for  it  is  like  a 
little  city,  are  covered  with  fine  white  sand.  We  were 
received  at  the  head  of  a  staircase  by  the  Superior,  who 
looked  like  a  saint  in  a  niche,  with  the  face  sculptured  in 
wax,  so  perfectly  white  was  it,  and  so  absorbed  and  serene. 
He  desired  that  we  should  have  dinner  provided  and  every 
comfort.  While  it  was  preparing  we  saw  the  rest  of  the 
convent. 

"There  are  few  curiosities  in  the  monastery,  for  unfortunately  every 
thing  ancient  has  disappeared  under  later  restorations,  so  I  did  not  find 
much  to  gratify  my  curiosity.  However  the  situation  in  the  mountains, 
the  life  of  the  monks  in  their  lonely  republic,  and  the  history  of  this 
strange  order,  gave  abundant  matter  for  observation.  One  of  those  cha- 
racters produced  by  the  epoch  of  the  crusades  among  which  Francis  and 
Dominic  were  soon  after  so  remarkable,  was  St.  Bruno,  who,  shocked 
at  the  excesses  of  Abp.  Manasses  of  Rheims,  founded  the  Carthusian  rule 
towards  the  end  of  the  nth  century.  This  order,  which  unites  social 
monachism  with  the  anchorite  life,  and  exacts  abstinence  with  the 
utmost  rigour,  received  its  name  from  the  place  where  it  took  its  rise,  la 
Chartreuse  near  Grenoble.  Its  statutes  (Consuetudines  Cartusianse) 
date  from  the  year  1134,  its  confirmation  by  the  Pope  was  obtained  in 
1 1 70.  In  a  time  when  the  minds  of  men  were  brought  into  a  mystic 
ecstasy  by  the  struggle  with  the  Mahometan  East,  the  war  of  the  church 
with  the  heresy  of  the  Albigenses,  and  finally  with  the  state,  a  new  re- 
formed order  would  have  a  rapid  success.  The  Carthusians  soon  spread, 
and  the  extreme  peculiarities  of  their  rule  contributed  thereto  not  a 
little.  As  early  as  1208  these  fathers  settled  in  Trisulti,  which  place  was 
given  to  them  by  Innocent  III.  Here  they  found  a  ruined  monastery, 
which  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  Benedictines,  and  here  they  erected 
upon  the  ruins  the  original  Carthusian  monastery  in  121 1.  They  say  a 
castle,  Trisalto,  gave  the  name  to  that  spot,  which  is  generally  explained 
a  tribus  saltibuSy  of  three  wood-covered  hills." — Gregorovius. 

The  little  houses  of  the  monks  surround  a  cloister  which 
VOL.  II.  2 


iS  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

is  now  a  radiant  garden.  Through  it  we  were  taken  to  the 
church,  which  was  built  in  121 1  by  Innocent  III.,  but 
restored  in  1768.  It  is  covered  internally  with  marbles, 
jaspers,  and  alabasters,  in  the  style  of  the  Certosa  of  Pavia. 
In  the  Sacristy  is  an  admirable  picture  by  the  Cavaliere 
d'  Arpino^  and  on  either  side  of  the  church  are  two  large 
pictures  by  the  modern  artist  Balbi  of  Alatri,  one  represent- 
ing Moses  striking  the  rock,  the  other  the  same  miracle  as 
performed  by  S.  Bruno.  Over  the  high-altar  is  a  fresco  of 
the  sending  forth  of  the  first  Carthusian  monks  to  colonize 
Trisulti. 

Just  within  the  gate  of  the  monastery  is  a  little  garden 
enclosed  by  walls,  and  ornamented  with  box  clipped  into 
most  fantastic  shapes.  The  terrace  beyond  it  leads  to  the 
Spezeria^  also  decorated  by  Balbi,  where  many  herbal  medi- 
cines, and  excellent  liqueurs  and  perfumes  are  made  by  the 
monks.  The  country  people  come  hither  constantly  and 
from  a  great  distance  for  medicine  and  advice,  and  receive  it 
without  any  payment. 

"  I  had  greater  pleasure  in  going  through  the  various  rooms  of  the 
monastery  than  in  looking  at  the  modern  pictures,  to  which  one  at  last 
becomes  indifferent.  The  Refectory  is  a  large  room,  suitably  ornament- 
ed with  a  painting  of  the  miracle  of  the  loaves  and  fishes.  Here 
the  brethren  all  assemble  on  feast  days  at  a  common  repast,  but  on 
other  days,  solitary  meals  in  the  cells  are  ordered  by  the  Rules.  I  was 
shown  the  clean  kitchen  and  the  bakehouse,  where  they  make  good 
bread  of  finer  and  coarser  qualities,  not  only  to  supply  the  food  of  the 
monks,  but  also  of  the  numerous  servants.  A  pond,  from  which  flows  a 
canal,  supplies  a  mill  in  the  neighbouring  yard.  But  the  object  the  most 
worthy  of  notice,  and  which  was  shown  to  me  with  just  pride,  is  the  Dis- 
pensary ;  and  I  entered  it  with  a  feeling  of  deeper  devotion  than  I  had 
felt  on  entering  the  church.  The  combination  of  medicinal  cures  with 
the  care  of  the  soul,  is  a  natural  and  very  ancient  task  of  these  monastic 
institutions  in  lonely  places  :  the  monks  who  study  medicine  exercise 'an 
activity  which  is  truly  praiseworthy  and  efficacious.   The  nature  of  these 


COLLEPARDO.  19 

mountains  invites  them  to  uninterrupted  study  of  the  medicinal  herbs 
which  grow  here  in  great  quantities  ;  and  what  more  pleasing  occupa- 
tion can  there  be  than  botanizing  in  these  mountains  among  rocks  and 
rivers,  collecting  these  wonder-working  balsamic  plants,  or  preparing 

them  medicinally At  midnight  the  bell  rings  for  matins,  and  the 

Excitaior  goes  from  cell  to  cell  to  rouse  the  monks.  They  pray  in  the 
four  first  penitential  psalms  ;  then  they  go  into  the  church,  where  for 
three  hours  they  chant  matins.  Having  returned  to  their  cells  they  con- 
tinue their  prayers,  and  then  a  short  interval  of  sleep  is  again  permitted. " 
— Gregorovius. 

A  little  path  which  turns  off  to  the  left  outside  the  gateway 
of  Trisulti  gives  the  best  view  of  the  monastic  buildings,  and 
continues  through  the  forest  to  the  Gothic  chapel  and  cell  of 
S.  Domenico  Loricato,  who  first  collected  a  number  of  her- 
mits around  him  on  this  spot,  and  built  a  chapel  which  he 
dedicated  to  S.  Bartholomew.  A  spring  which  rises  near  S. 
Domenico  supplies  the  fountains  of  the  convent,  and  popular 
tradition  declares  that  it  comes  by  channels  from  the  Lago 
di  Celano,  and  that  it  used  occasionally  to  bring  up  frag- 
ments of  fishing-nets  from  thence. 

Having  feasted  on  the  convent  fare  we  returned  to  Colle- 
pardo  to  visit  its  famous  grottos.  We  left  our  horses  at  the 
top  of  the  rock,  whence  a  stony  path  winds  down  by  zig- 
zags into  the  abyss  of  the  Cosa.  Here  the  scenery  is  mag- 
nificent, the  gorge  is  very  narrow,  only  wide  enough  to  con- 
tain the  stream  and  the  path  by  its  side,  and  on  the  left  rises 
a  tremendous  precipice,  in  the  face  of  which  yawns  the 
mouth  of  the  cavern.  We  had  taken  the  precaution  of 
asking  for  what  is  called  an  "  illumination  "  on  our  way  to 
Trisulti — and  had  ordered  one  of  five  francs,  knowing  by 
experience  that  the  light  which  is  enough  to  show,  but  not 
to  annihilate  the  eff'ect  of  darkness,  is  far  the  most  effective. 
When  we  arrived,  all  was  ready,  and  a  troop  of  boys,  and  of 


20  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

peasant  women  from  the  village,  had  arrived  to  take  part 
in  the  spectacle.  We  descended  into  the  earth  by  a  wide 
path  like  a  hill-side,  and  then  ascended  by  a  narrower 
rocky  path  through  the  darkness,  lighted  by  glaring  torches. 
Suddenly  we  found  ourselves  on  the  edge  of  a  chasm,  some- 
thing like  the  Pozzo  di  Santulla,  a  fearful  pit,  with  a  kind 
of  rock-altar  rising  in  the  midst,  blazing  with  fire,  and 
throwing  a  ghastly  glare  on  the  wondering  faces  looking  over 
the  edge  of  the  abyss,  and  on  the  sides  of  the  tremendous 
columns  of  stalactites  which  rose  from  the  ground  to  the 
roof  like  a  vast  natural  cathedral,  and  seemed  to  fall  again 
in  showers  of  petrified  fountains.  Sir  R.  C.  Hoare  says  that 
"  the  large  vaulted  roofs,  spacious  halls,  fantastic  columns 
and  pyramids,  imitating  rustic  yet  unequalled  architecture, 
present  a  fairy  palace  which  rivals  the  most  gorgeous  de- 
scriptions of  romance."  Yet  this  does  not  give  a  sufficiently 
impressive  idea  of  Collepardo.  It  must  be  seen  to  be 
realized : — seen,  with  its  vast  stalactite  halls  opening  one 
beyond  another,  not  level,  but  broken  by  rugged  cliffs  with 
winding  pathlets  along  their  edges ;  seen,  with  its  flame- 
bearing  pinnacles  sending  volumes  of  bright  smoke  into  the 
upper  darkness  :  seen,  with  its  groups  of  wondering  people 
clambering  along  the  rocks,  with  their  flashing  torches, 
shouting  to  one  another  as  they  go,  and  startling  the  bats 
and  owls  which  add  by  their  shrieks  to  the  hideous  con- 
fusion.    Collepardo  is  the  crowning  feature  of  the  tour. 

"The  very  entrance  promises  something  extraordinary.  A  black 
abyss  yawns  from  between  dark  masses  of  rock,  and  a  stream  of  cold  air 
seems  to  rise  up  from  the  deepest  depths.  We  wrapped  up  carefully 
before  going  down.  The  guides  with  the  torches  went  on  before,  and 
soon  light  clouds  of  smoke,  issuing  from  the  clefts  of  the  outer  wall, 
showed  that  they  were  within.  I  have  seen  many  mountain  grottos,  and 


FROSINONE.  21 

am  no  longer  on  the  whole  susceptible  to  these  freaks  of  nature  ;  so  I 
did  not  think  much  of  the  grotto  of  Collepardo  when  I  entered.  Yet  it 
made  an  impression  on  me  by  its  great  size.  It  consists  of  two  principal 
parts,  like  two  enormous  halls,  separated  in  the  middle  by  a  low  broken 
wall.  The  colour  of  the  sides  and  the  ground  is  black  or  golden-brown  ; 
great  rocks  lie  about,  some  of  which  must  be  climbed  over,  and  from  the 
irregular  vaultings  of  the  roof  depend  stalactites  of  various  shapes,  great 
and  small,  while  others  in  the  strangest  forms  and  groups  seem  to  rise 
to  meet  them  from  the  ground. 

"The  most  singular  formations  are  in  the  back  part  of  the  grotto.  In 
order  to  see  it  perfectly,  we  waited  in  the  front  space  until  it  was  com- 
pletely lighted  up.  Not  only  had  many  men  and  boys  with  torches 
placed  themselves  here  and  there,  but  they  had  lighted  great  heaps  of 
tow  in  different  places.  When  I  looked  into  the  magic  hall  thus  illumin- 
ated, it  was  certainly  a  wonderful  sight.  We  now  seemed  to  enter  an 
Egyptian  temple  with  black  pillars,  between  which  stood  statues  of 
sphinxes  and  gods,  now  we  roamed  through  a  forest  of  stone  palm-trees  and 
other  fantastic  plants,  and  again  lances  and  swords  bristled  here,  or  armour 
of  dwarfs  and  giants  hung  from  the  walls.  All  this  seemed  to  live  in  the 
flickering  light  of  the  torches,  which  here  brought  out  the  dazzling 
masses,  and  there  threw  yet  blacker  shadows.  No  representation  can  be 
made  of  such  a  cave,  for  the  imagination  of  each  one  sees  it  in  a  par- 
ticular way,  and  peoples  it  with  phantoms. 

"  Of  course  names  are  not  wanting  for  particularly  prominent  stalactite 
filiations,  and  I  was  called  upon  to  acknowledge  the  likeness  of  this 
and  that,  but  the  only  ones  I  remember  are  the  so  called  *  Trophies  of 
the  Romans,'  some  strongly-marked  form§  which  may  easily  recall  the 
trophies  on  the  ascent  to  the  Capitol  at  Rome. " — Gregorovius. 

It  is  possible  to  reach  Rome  in  the  evening  after  visiting 
Trisulti  and  Collepardo.  We  only  went  to  the  excellent 
country  inn  at  Frosinone^  and  spent  a  delightful  morning  in 
the  enjoyment  of  its  invigorating  air,  and  the  lovely  view 
from  our  windows.  The  to\vn  is  most  picturesque,  and  is 
full  of  quaint  mediaeval  bits,  with  some  insignificant  remains 
of  a  Roman  amphitheatre.  It  occupies  the  site  of  the 
Volscian  city  Frusino. 

**  Pert  concitus  inde 

Per  juga  celsa  gradum,  duris  qua  rupibus  haeret 

Bellator  Frusino."— ^?/.  Jtal.  xii.  530. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
FARFA. 

(The  only  way  of  reaching  Farfa  and  returning  to  Rome  the  same  day 
— and  there  is  no  satisfactory  sleeping-place — is  to  take  the  train  at  6.40 
A.M.  to  Montorso.  If  carriages  are  waiting  at  the  station,  the  direct  road 
to  Farfa  may  be  taken  ;  if  not,  there  is  a  humble  diligence  to  Poggio 
Mirteto,  whence  a  two-horse  carriage — 25  francs — may  be  taken  to 
Farfa,  about  five  miles  distant,  and  kept  to  go  on  to  Montorso  to  meet 
the  evening  train.  Rather  more  than  1 1  hour  must  be  allowed  for  the 
return  drive  to  Montorso.  There  is  no  inn  at  Montorso,  so  those  who. 
are  late  for  the  last  train  miist  go  on  to  sleep  at  Terni  or  Spoleto.) 

THE  excursion  to  Farfa  should  be  kept  till  the  spring. 
In  the  latter  part  of  April,  or  still  better  in  May,  it  is 
quite  impossible  to  visit  a  place  of  more  radiant  lovelindfs. 
It  is  the  ideal  Italy, — the  most  fertile  part  of  the  beautiful 
Sabina,  and  no  transition  can  be  more  complete  than  that 
from  the  desolate  Campagna,  with  its  ruined  tombs  and 
aqueducts  speaking  only  of  the  past,  to  these  exquisite 
woods  and  deep  shady  valleys  amid  the  purple  mountains, 
filled  with  life  and  in  the  richest  cultivation,  and  watered  by 
the  rushing  stream  of  the  Farfarus. 

One  can  scarcely  open  a  page  of  Italian  history  in  the 
middle  ages,  without  meeting  the  name  of  Farfa.  Doubly 
founded  by  saints,  its  monastery  rose  to  the  utmost  height  of 
ecclesiastical  importance.  Its  Benedictine  monks  were 
looked  upon  as   the   centre   of  Italian  learning,  and  the 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  FARFA.  23 

*'  Chronicle  of  Farfa,"  compiled  from  its  already  decaying 
charters  and  records  by  Thomas  the  Presbyter,  about  1092, 
and  now  preserved  amongst  the  most  valuable  MSS.  of  the 
Vatican,  has  ever  since  been  one  of  the  most  important 
works  of  reference  for  Church  history.  The  abbots  lived  as 
princes  and  considered  themselves  as  the  equals  of  the 
popes.  It  is  narrated  that  the  Abbot  of  Farfa  once  met  a 
Pope  at  Corese,  and  knew  that  he  must  be  going  to  the 
monastery.  He  said  to  his  Majordomo,  who  was  with  him 
— "  That  is  the  Pope,  and  he  is  going  to  Farfa  ;  of  course  I 
cannot  be  expected  to  return,  but  you  will  go  back  to  receive 
him,  and  you  will  desire  that  the  same  respect  should  be 
paid  to  him  which  is  paid  to  me,  and  that  a  fatted  calf 
should  be  killed  in  his  honour."  The  monks  of  Farfa 
appear  never  to  have  numbered  more  than  683,  but  the 
amount  of  their  possessions  is  almost  incredible  : — "  urbes 
duas,  Centumcellas  (Civita-Vecchia)  and  Alatrium;  castal- 
datus  5  ;  castella  132  ;  oppida  16  ;  portus  7  ;  salinas  8  ;  villas 
14;  molendina  82;  pagos  315;  complures  lacus,  pascua, 
decimas,  portoria,  ac  praediorum  immanem  copiam."  Till 
the  recent  suppression,  the  revenues  of  the  abbot,  who  has 
long  resided  at  Rome,  amounted  to  nine  thousand  scudi 
annually. 

But  in  1686,  when  Mabillon  made  his  monastic  tour,  the 
buildings  of  Farfa  were  already  falling  into  decay.  In  the 
summer  and  autumn  months  the  air  of  the  Farfarus  was 
considered  unhealthy,  and  the  abbot  resided  at  the  castle  of 
Fara  on  the  hill-side  above  the  monastery,  and  the  monks 
eight  miles  off,  at  the  convent  of  San  Salvatore.  Since  that 
time  Farfa  has  been  more  and  more  neglected,  till  its  very 
name  and  existence  are  almost  utterly  forgotten. 


24  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Before  our  visit  to  Farfa  in  April,  1874,  we  found  it 
utterly  impossible  to  obtain  any  accurate  information  either 
as  to  the  present  state  of  the  monastery  or  the  means  of 
reaching  it.  No  foreigner,  no  modern  Roman,  had  ever 
been  known  to  go  there.  Even  Mr.  Hemans,  so  usually  in- 
defatigable, had  never  seen  it.  Priests,  monks,  and  bishops 
were  consulted  in  vain.  Two  monks  were  found  in  the 
abbey  of  Monte  Cassino  who  had  been  there,  and  who  spoke 
of  it  almost  with  tears  of  affectionate  admiration,  but  they 
had  been  there  in  extreme  youth,  and  they  were  now  very 
old  men.  Our  nearest  approach  to  accurate  information 
about  the  long  lost  monastery  came  from  a  porter  at  one  of  the 
palaces,  who  had  a  cousin,  who  had  a  sister-in-law,  who  had 
a  lover,  who  had  seen  Farfa.  At  last,  a  coachman  was 
found  who  came  from  that  neighbourhood,  and  who  said 
that  Englishmen  went  far  and  wide  to  see  the  country  and 
underwent  many  difficulties  to  accompHsh  their  objects,  but 
he  wondered  that  they  never  went  to  Farfa,  for  "at  Farfa 
were  the  Gates  of  Paradise." 

Finding  no  carriage  at  the  Montorso  station,  we  were  glad 
to  take  the  so-called  diligence  to  Poggio  Mirteto,  being  the 
only  possible  means  of  locomotion — ^not  a  very  swift  one 
certainly,  as  it  only  went  at  a  foot's  pace  on  the  level  ground, 
and  on  the  hills  it  stopped  altogether,  when,  as  the  driver 
explained,  it  was  "  necessary  for  all  the  company  to  get  out 
and  walk,  to  prevent  the  wheels  rolling  backwards.^'  We  at 
once  began  to  reach  a  new  country,  rich  in  vines  and  figs 
and  olives,  and  with  lovely  views  towards  the  noble  serrated 
outline  of  Soracte.  Here,  amidst  the  glowing  uplands,  the 
master  of  the  Hotel  Minerva  at  Rome  has  a  great  farm  and 
a  pink  palazzo.     Various  towns  and  villages  crest  the  differ- 


MONTOPOLL 


25 


ent  hills ;  to  the  left,  Cantelupo,  Pompeo,  Poggio  Catino, 
and  Aspra ;  to  the  right,  Montopoli.  The  largest  town  is 
Poggio  Mirtito^  which  our  driver  assured  us  was  //  Parigi 
della  Sabina,  and  which  has  rather  a  handsome  church  and 
piazza.  Strange  to  say,  the  population  of  this  considerable, 
though  out  of  the  way  place,  is  chiefly  Protestant,  and  there 
is  a  Protestant  church  here.  The  priests  themselves,  by 
their  lives,  had  brought  about  this  change  of  religion,  said 
the  people  we  spoke  to. 

Here  we  obtained  a  carriage,  and  proceeded  to  Montopoli 
by  an  excellent  road  along  the  ridges  of  the  swelling  hills, 
which  are  covered  \vith  olives,  chestnuts,  and  peach-trees, 
with  an  under-carpet  of  com.  On  the  left  a  wide  valley  runs 
up  bet\veen  the  mountains,  which  are  here  clothed  with 
wood  almost  to  their  summits,  ending  in  the  rock-built  town 
of  Torfea.  The  further  mountain  is  crowned  by  a  castle. 
This  is  the  famous  fortress  of  Fara,  which  protected  the 
abbey  at  its  feet  in  time  of  trouble,  and  which  is  spoken 
of  in  the  chronicle  of  Farfa  as,  "  Castellum  Pharae  in  hoc 


Farfa. 


eminente  monte."     On  the  hill  beyond,  at  the  spot  called 


26  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

Bucci,  is  another  castle  of  the  monastery  called  Tribucci  or 
Buccinianum.  A  tall  ruined  tower  on  a  nearer  hill  is  called 
Cottetino. 

Embosomed  in  woods,  beneath  La  Fara,  the  great  monas- 
tery of  Farfa  stands  boldly  out  from  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain. It  is  on  the  spot  where  the  Syrian  hermit  Lorenzo, 
who  had  been  made  Bishop  of  Spoleto,  retired  from  the 
world  about  a.d.  550,  and  built  a  hermitage,  where  by  his 
prayers  he  destroyed  a  poisonous  dragon  which  had  long 
devastated  the  neighbouring  valleys.  The  exact  site  of  his 
cell  was  long  marked  by  three  tall  cypresses,  but  they  are 
now  only  to  be  seen  in  a  fresco  in  the  church.  Many 
brethren  and  disciples  gathering  around  his  retreat,  he  built 
a  monastery  which  he  called  after  the  name  of  the  farm — 
Casale  Acutianus — in  which  it  was  erected,  and  dedicated  it 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin.  The  monastery  of  Acutianus  became 
a  place  of  pilgrimage,  as  containing  the  shrine  of  Lorenzo, 
and  attained  great  splendour,  no  less  than  five  basiUcas  being 
raised  there,  one  of  which  was  intended  for  women.  But 
the  monastery  was  attacked  and  destroyed  by  the  Lombards 
in  568.  It  then  remained  desolate  till  681,  when  S.  Thomas 
the  Venerable,  while  praying  before  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in 
Jerusalem,  beheld  in  a  vision  the  Blessed  Virgin,  who  com- 
manded him  to  rebuild  her  sanctuary  and  that  of  her 
servant  Lorenzo.  The  buildings  were  restored,  and  the 
monastery  rose  to  such  magnificence,  that  no  other  in  Italy, 
except  that  of  Nonantula,  could  rival  it.  Early  in  the 
eleventh  century  the  name  seems  to  have  been  changed  to 
Farfa.  The  famous  Chronicle  speaks  of  it  by  both  its  names 
— "  Liber  Chronici  Monasterii  Acutiani  sive  Farfensis  in 
Ducatu  Spoletano." 


FAR  FA.  27 

"  About  the  year  936,  the  reigning  abbot  was  murdered  by  two  of  the 
fraternity,  Campo  and  Hildebrand.  The  last  words  of  the  abbot,  ad- 
dressed in  doggerel  Latin  to  Campo,  were,  *  Campigenans  Campo,  mal^ 
quam  me  campegenastis. ' 

*•  Campo  was  abbot  in  936,  and  Hildebrand  in  939.  The  conduct  of 
Campo  seems  to  have  been  particularly  disgraceful :  his  children  he 
portioned  from  the  effects  of  the  church,  and  he  seems  to  have  been 
addicted  to  every  species  of  riotous  and  disorderly  living,  to  the  great 
scandal  of  the  place  and  times. 

"These  crying  sins  of  the  Christians,  says  the  history,  calling  aloud 
for  punishment,  the  Agareni  (Saracens)  invaded  the  country  (a.d.  1004) 
and  surrounded  the  monastery  of  Farfa.  The  abbot  of  that  time,  Peter, 
made  a  stout  resistance,  and  drove  away  the  invaders  several  times  ;  and, 
in  the  interim,  found  means  to  send  away  all  the  treasure  of  his  convent 
to  Rome,  to  Rieti,  and  Firmo.  The  valuable  marbles  of  the  church 
lie  hid  underground,  and  they  have  never  since  been  discovered.  The 
Saracens,  when  they  at  length  took  the  deserted  monastery,  though 
enraged  at  the  loss  of  their  expected  booty,  admired  the  place  so  much, 
that  instead  of  burning  it,  they  converted  it  into  a  residence  for  them- 
selves. The  abbey  was  subsequently  destroyed  by  fire  :  certain  Chris- 
tian marauders  from  Poggio  Catino,  who  had  taken  up  their  lodging 
there  for  the  night,  whilst  the  Saracens  were  absent  upon  some  occasion, 
had  lighted  a  fire  in  a  comer,  which  (being  alarmed  by  some  noise  in 
the  abbey)  they  left  burning ;  and,  hurrying  away,  the  neglected  fire 
spread,  and  the  stately  buildings  were  completely  destroyed. 

**  After  this,  Farfa  lay  in  ruins  forty-eight  years  ;  till  Hugo,  king  of 
Burgundy,  coming  into  Italy,  ,the  abbot  Raffredus  began  to  restore  it, 
with  the  treasures  sent  to  Rome  and  to  Firmo  ;  but  those  which  had 
been  conveyed  to  Rieti  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Saracens." — Sir 
W.  GelPs  Rome  and  its  Vicinity. 

From  the  time  of  St.  Thomas  the  Venerable  in  680,  to 
Nicholas  II.  in  1388,  the  list  of  the  abbots  of  Farfa  is 
abnost  intact,  and  the  place  constantly  increased  in  import- 
ance. One  of  its  monks,  Bernardo,  chosen  Abbot  of 
Subiaco  in  the  thirteenth  century,  pompously  begins  his 
installation-edict  with :  "  We,  Bernardo  Eretoni,  of  the 
Order  of  St.  Benedict,  monk  of  the  holy  and  imperial  abbey 
of  S.  Maria  of  Farfa,  and  afterwards  by  the  grace  of  God 
Abbot  of  S.  Scolastica,  &c." 


28  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Through   the  valley  beneath   the   monastery  flows  the 
beautiful  river  Farfarus  or  Fabaris  : — 

"Qui  Thybrim  Fabarimque  bibunt," — Virgil.  jEn.  vii.  715. 
*' Amoenss  Farfarus  umbrae." — Ovid.  Metam.  xiv.  330. 

and  is  crossed  by  an  ancient  bridge. 

As  in  classical  times,  the  valley  is  almost  buried  in  ver 
dure.  Plautus  alludes  to  it : — "  You  shall  be  dispersed  like 
the  leaves  of  Farfarus."  A  stony  road  (possible  for  car- 
riages) ascends  from  the  stream,  through  thickets  of  oaks, 
and  of  Judas  trees,  which  make  the  very  ground  pink  with 
their  falling  flowers  in  spring.  The  banks  are  carpeted 
with  periwinkles  and  anemones,  and  cuckoos  and  nightin- 
gales sing  incessantly  in  the  thick  shades.  An  outer  wall 
surrounds  the  monastic  enclosures,  and  serves  also  as  pro- 
tection to  the  little  village,  which  nestles  under  the  shadow 
of  the  church.  Twice  a  year,  after  Easter  and  Michael- 
mas, there  is  a  famous  fair  here,  much  frequented  by  those 
who  purchase  the  oil  of  Farfa,  which  is  sold  here  in  huge 
barrels.  At  these  times  the  Titular  Abbot,  who  is  also  the 
Procuratore  Generale  of  the  whole  Benedictine  Order  (the 
Padre  Pescinelli),  comes  to  reside  for  a  time  at  Farfa,  where 
there  are  generally  only  three  monks,  to  fulfil  the  offices  of 
the  Church.  We  were  fortunate  in  arriving  at  this  time. 
The  little  street  was  lined  with  booths  full  of  gay  wares,  and 
shaded  by  coloured  awnings  of  orange,  blue,  and  white 
canvas.  Two  gateways,  both  very  richly  sculptured,  lead 
to  the  church.  Over  the  outer,  the  sainted  founders, 
Lorenzo  and  Tomaso,  over  the  inner  Benedict  and  Scholas- 
tica,  kneel  before  the  Virgin  and  Child,  in  two  very  beau 
tiful  frescoes  by  an  early  Umbrian  master.     The  church  is 


CONVENT  OF  FARFA. 


29 


cruciform,  and  almost  covered  with  frescoes,  which,  if  not 
very  good  as  works  of  art,  are  at  least  highly  picturesque. 
The  papal  benefactors  of  the  monastery  are  represented 
between  the  arches,  which  are  supported  by  ancient  granite 
pillars.  The  ceiling  is  richly  carved  in  wood.  At  the  cross 
is  an  intricate  pavement  of  opus-alexandrium.  The  whole 
of  the  western  wall  above  the  door  is  occupied  by  a  fresco 
of  the  Last  Judgment,  which,  when  executed,  was  con- 
sidered "  so  terrible  to  behold,  that  those  who  looked  upon 
it  thought  of  nothing  but  death  for  many  days." 


Convent  of  Farfa. 


The  choir  is  now  stripped  of  its  "  choir  books  plated  with 
gold  and  silver  and  set  with  gems,"  and  is  no  longer  rich  in 
*'  gold  and  silver  ornaments,  and  in  dresses  for  the  officiating 
priests,  embroidered  with  gold,  and  studded  with  precious 
stones,"  but  a  beautiful  paschal-candlestick  remains,  a  real 
work  of  art,  though  only  carved  in  wood.    On  the  left  of  the 


30  DA  ys  NEAR  ROME. 

altar  is  the  Chapel  of  S.  Lorenzo  Siro,  where  he  is  buried, 
and  where  the  brazen  hoop  of  the  scatola  in  which  he  carried 
a  famous  picture  of  the  Virgin  tO  Farfa  is  preserved.  This 
picture  is  still  over  the  high-altar :  four  heads,  the  Virgin, 
with  the  Bambino  beneath,  and  two  seraphins  set  in  gold — 
black  of  course,  and  attributed  to  St.  Luke.  On  the  right  is 
the  chapel  of  the  second  founder,  Tomaso,  with  a  picture  of 
him  receiving  the  commands  of  the  Virgin ;  the  hill  of  Farfa 
and  the  three  cypresses  of  Lorenzo  are  represented  in  the 
background.  Here  also,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  church, 
the  original  building  is  pourtrayed  with  two  towers,  only 
one  of  which  remains. 

The  vast  monastic  buildings  are  now  chiefly  used  as  a 
farm.  In  the  corner  of  the  cloister  is  an  ancient  well, 
apparently  a  relic  of  some  pagan  temple  on  this  site,  to 
which  the  pillars  of  the  church  also  probably  belonged.  It 
is  beautifully  sculptured  with  the  Battle  of  the  Amazons  in 
high  relief  Outside,  is  the  terrace,  where  the  Chronicle  says 
that  the  monks  were  sitting  before  supper,  in  the  year  1125, 
when  "  they  beheld  the  tower  of  the  castle  of  Farfa  stricken 
and  burnt  by  a  flash  of  lightning." 

It  was  a  picture  seldom  seen  now  in  Italy,  when  the 
carriage  came  to  take  us  away  from  Farfa  and  the  venerable 
abbot  with  his  few  remaining  monks  came  out  to  take  leave 
of  us.  He  had  invited  us  to  stay,  as  the  abbey  is  no  longer 
dausura,  and  the  ladies  of  our  party  could  have  been  ac- 
commodated, "  though,"  he  added,  "as  there  were  neither  beds 
nor  chairs,  they  might  not  be  very  comfortable."  As  he 
stood  in  the  gateway,  under  the  old  fresco,  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  the  little  town  gathered  around  him,  with  perfect 


FARFA.  31 

friendly  confidence  in  him,  and  farewell  speeches  for  us — 
and  it  gave  one  an  idea  of  what  the  paternal  relation  must 
often  have  been  between  the  abbots  and  their  people  in 
these  secluded  places,  and  of  what  might  have  been  their 
influence. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
CIVITA  CASTELLANA  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

THIS  is  quite  one  of  the  most  interesting  parts  of  Italy, 
and  is  far  too  little  known.  Scarcely  one  traveller  in 
a  thousand  ever  visits  Civita  Castellana,  though  it  stands 
amid  the  noblest  scenery  imaginable,  possesses  the  most 
delightful  air  ^nd  lovely  views  over  the  mountains,  and  is 
only  two  hours  distant  from  Rome.  The  inns  are  very 
humble,  but  bearable.  The  Croce  Bianca  is  the  best,  though 
there  is  a  fine  view  from  La  Posta.  To  the  archaeologist  the 
neighbourhood  of  Civita  opens  a  wonderful  mine  of  interest 
hitherto  almost  unexplored,  while  to  the  botanist  and  geolo- 
gist it  would  prove  scarcely  less  attractive.  An  artist  might 
pass  months  here  fully  employed  upon  the  glorious  scenery, 
though  there  is  no  variety  of  costume  in  this  country,  as  in 
the  mountain  villages  south  of  Rome. 

On  the  last  day  of  April,  a  most  lovely  fresh  sunny  morn- 
ing, we  took  our  tickets  at  Rome  for  the  Borghetto  station 
on  the  Florence  line  of  railway.  It  is  rather  more  than  an 
hour's  journey  across  the  Campagna,  passing  close  under  the 
hill  of  Fidenae,  and  seeing,  beyond  it,  Monte  Rotondo  on 
the  right,  and  the  town  of  Corese,  the  ancient  Cures,  which 
Dionysius  calls  the  greatest  of  Sabine  cities,  on  the   left. 


BORGHETTO. 


33 


Several  carriages  were  waiting  at  Borghetto,  and  we  travelled 
pleasantly  into  the  delicious  clover-scented  uplands,  stopping 


Borghetto. 

by  the  way  to  admire  the  grand  old  castle  with  its  tall  tower 
and  ruined  church,  standing  on  a  tufa  rock  just  above  the 
railway.  Beyond,  in  the  hollow,  flows  the  stealthy  Tiber, 
which  here  makes  such  immense  bends  amongst  the  low- 
lying  pasture  lands  that  one  pities  the  passengers  in  the 
river  steamers,  which  till  a  few  years  ago  were  the  chief 
means  of  communication  between  Rome  and  Borghetto. 
As  we  were  carried  merrily  on  over  the  luxuriant  hay-fields, 
between  hedges  of  wild  roses  and  cistus,  we  looked  across 
the  valley  to  Maglian  Sabina  gleaming  white  against  the 
dark  mountain  steeps.  Suddenly,  without  any  previous 
sign,  the  pastures  opened,  and  we  found  ourselves  on  the 
edge  of  a  gulf  in  the  tufa,  a  deep  abyss  of  rock  where 
the  evergreen  shrubs  and  honeysuckle  fell  in  perfect 
cascades  of  luxuriance  over  the  red  and  yellow  tufa  cliffs, 
stained  here  and  there  with  dashes  of  black  and  brown, 
and  perforated  with  Etruscan  tombs  of  various  sizes, 
reached  by  narrow  pathways  along  the  face  of  the  pre- 
cipice.    In  the  misty  depths  the  little  river  Treja  wanders 

VOL.  II.  3 


34 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


amid  huge  stones,  and  under  the  tall  arches  of  a  magnifi- 
cent bridge  of  17 12,  which  crosses  the  ravine  at  a  height 


Gorge  of  Civita  Castellana. 

of  120  feet.  The  opposite  bank  is  crested  by  the  old 
houses  and  churches  of  Civita  j  and  in  the  hollow  are  some 
rustic  water-mills.  One  must  make  a  very  sharp  bargain  if 
one  descends  at  the  Hotel  of  La  Posta,  as  the  landlord  takes 
advantage  of  his  few  travellers  to  extort  as  much  as  he  pos- 
sibly can.  It  is  a  curious  kind  of  caravansary,  as  a  great 
part  of  the  large  building  is  let  off  to  poor  famiHes,  and  most 
of  what  remains  is  occupied  by  the  officers  of  the  garrison. 
Ablutions  can  here  only  be  made  like  mosaics,  a  small  por- 
tion at  a  time.  From  the  terrace  there  is  the  most  lovely 
view  over  the  ravine  to  the  mountains. 

The  Cathedral  of  Civita  is  very  fascinating,  and  very  un- 
like anything  else.  The  wide  portico  at  the  west  end  sup- 
ported by  a  range  of  pillars  is  encrusted  with  lovely  mosaic 
work  of  12 10,  by  Lorenzo  Cosmati  and  his  sons. 


CATHEDRAL  OF  CI  VITA.  35 

"  A  fine  flight  of  steps  leads  up  to  a  porch  of  fair  proportions,  flanked 
by  porticoes.  The  porch  opens  on  to  the  chief  portal  by  a  broad  arch 
resting  on  pilasters  and  crowned  with  an  entablature  and  balcony.  The 
portal  is  a  series  of  pilasters  and  columns,  above  the  architrave  of 
which  is  a  recess  with  a  fan  window.  The  arched  border  of  this  recess, 
as  well  as  the  pilasters,  friezes,  and  wall,  are  worked  in  mosaic.  In  the 
key  of  the  border  is  the  lamb ;  on  the  pilasters,  the  symbols  of  the  Evan- 
gelists. The  following  inscription  on  the  architrave  reveals  the  name  of 
the  author: 

Laurentius  cum  Jacobo,  filio  suo,  magistri 
doctissimi  Romaui,  hoc  opus  fecerunt. 

Two  lateral  doors  flank  the  chief  portal,  and  in  the  lunette  of  that  to  the 
right  is  a  bust  figure  in  mosaic  of  the  Saviour,  with  a  cruciform  jewelled 
nimbus,  holding  a  book  and  stretching  out  his  right  hand  in  the  act  of 
benediction.  A  natural  movement  and  fair  contours  mark  the  figure, 
which  has  none  of  the  usual  grimness  or  vehemence.  The  oval  head, 
inclosed  by  hair  falling  in  a  triple  wave  behind  the  shoulders,  has  at 
least  an  expression  of  repose.  The  chin,  broad  and  bare,  is  fringed  with 
a  short  beard,  the  nose  is  straight,  the  mouth  small,  and  the  eyes  without 
stare.  A  red  tunic  with  gold  borders  and  jewelled  blue  cuffs,  and  a  gold 
mantle,  complete  the  dress,  which  is  shadowless  and  flat,  but  fairly  lined. 
The  yellowish  flesh  tints  tend  to  red  on  the  cheeks,  and  are  outlined  with 
red  in  the  lights  and  black  in  the  shadows.  On  the  architrave  below 
this  gay  and  not  unpleasant  mosaic  are  the  words : 

Ma  .  .  .  Jaco  )    f  Rainerius  Petri  Rodulpho  fieri  fecit." 
bus  m  fecit  \  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

Except  the  opus  alexandrinum  pavement  and  the  crypt, 
the  interior  of  the  church  has  been  modernized,  but  the 
arrangement  is  remarkable,  as  the  nave  ends  in  a  broad 
semi-circular  staircase  leading  to  the  tribune,  like  a  picture 
of  Paul  Veronese.  The  transepts  are  occupied  by  the  local 
saints  Gracilianus  and  Felicissima :  the  latter  is  shown  in  a 
glass  case  and  wreath  of  pink  roses. 

Beyond  the  cathedral  rises  the  citadel,  built  by  Antonio 
San  Gallo  for  Alexander  VI.  Gsell-fels  calls  its  tower  with  the 
triangular  outworks  "  the  political  Bastile  of  Rome."  Some 
years  ago  we  went  thither  to  visit  the  famous  robber  chief- 


36 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


tain  Gasparoni,  imprisoned  for  twenty  years  under  the  papacy. 
Many  of  his  band  were  with  him,  and  there  was  certainly 


Cathedral  Pertico,  Civita  Castellana. 

an  unpleasant  sensation  when  the  door  of  the  large  room 
tliey  inhabited  was  closed,  and  from  the  numerous  little 
beds  where  they  were  lying,  gaunt  and  with  matted  hair, 
the  many  figures  rose  up  of  men  who  were  so  long  the  terror 
of  the  Campagna,  and  whose  murders  rnider  circumstances 
of  the  most  detailed  barbarity  still  are  told  by  Castelli  grand- 
mothers to  terrify  the  village  circles.  When  About  went  to 
visit  Gasparoni  in  his  prison,  the  old  robber-chief  oifered 
him  a  printed  list  of  the  hundred  murders  he  had  committed, 
as  a  souvenir  on  taking  leave,  and  was  greatly  surprised  that 
he  did  not  wish  to  accept  it.  Under  the  Sardinian  govern- 
ment *  Gasparoni  and  all  the  survivors  of  his  band  are  set  at 
liberty ! 

Civita  Castellana  occupies  the  site  of  the  Falerium  Vetus, 

*  Who  complain  that  brigandage  is  encouraged  bv  the  adherents  of 
the  Pope  and  Francis  II. 


FALERII.  .  37 

mentioned  so  often  by  Plutarch  and  Livy,  and  founded  by 

the  Pelasgi  soon  after  the  Trojan  war.     Ovid  however,  who 

married  a  FaHscan  wife,  ascribes  its  foundation  to  Halesus, 

son  of  Agamemnon. 

**  Venerat  Atridae  fatis  agitatus  Halesus  ; 
A  quo  se  dictam  terra  Falisca  putat." 

Fast.  iv.  73. 

"Cum  mihi  pomiferis  conjux  foret  orta  FaliscLs, 

Moenia  contigimus  victa,  Camille,  tibi. 
Casta  sacerdotes  Junoni  festa  parabant 

Per  celebres  ludos,  indigenamque  bovem. 
Grande  morae  pretium  ritus  cognoscere,  quamvis 

Difficilis  clivis  hue  via  praebet  iter. 
Stat  vetus  et  densa  praenubilus  arbore  lucus : 

Aspice,  concedas  numen  inesse  loco. 
Accipit  ara  preces,  votivaque  tura  piorum, 

Ara  per  antiquas  facta  sine  arte  manus. 
Hinc  ubi  praesonuit  soUenni  tibia  cantu, 

It  per  velaias  annua  pompa  vias. 
Ducuntur  niveae,  populo  plaudente,  juvencae, 

Quas  aluit  campis  herba  Falisca  suis." 

Amor.  iii.  Eleg.  13. 

"Camillus  was  the  military  tribune  under  whom  Falerii  was  added  to 
the  territory  of  Rome.  According  to  the  legend,  *  a  schoolmaster,  who 
had  the  care  of  the  sons  of  the  principal  citizens,  took  an  opportunity 
when  walking  with  his  boys  without  the  walls,  to  lead  them  to  the 
Roman  camp,  and  throw  them  into  the  power  of  the  enemy.  But 
Camillus,  indignant  at  this  treason,  bade  the  boys  drive  their  master  back 
into  the  town  again,  flogging  him  all  the  way  thither,  for  the  Romans, 
he  said,  made  no  war  with  children.  Upon  this  the  Faliscans,  won  by 
his  magnanimity,  surrendered  to  him  at  discretion,  themselves,  their 
city,  and  their  country.'  " — Arnold's  Hist,  of  Rome. 

The  most  remarkable  remains  of  the  ancient  Falerii  will 
be  found  near  the  Ponte  Terrano  about  a  mile  beyond  the 
castle  of  Sangallo.  The  bridge  crosses  the  ravine  of  the  Rio 
Maggiore  by  a  double  arch ;  one  pier  is  of  rock,  the  other 
of  Etruscan  masonry. 


38  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"The  cliffs  above  and  below  the  bridge  are  perforated  in  every  direc- 
tion with  holes — doorways  innumerable,  leading  into  spacious  tombs — 
sepulchral  niches  of  various  forms  and  sizes — here,  rows  of  squares,  side- 
by  side,  like  the  port-holes  of  a  ship  of  war — there,  long  and  shallow 
recesses,  one  over  the  other,  like  an  open  cupboard,  or  a  book-case, 
where  the  dead  were  literally  laid  upon  the  shelf,  — now  again,  upright 
like  pigeon-holes, — or  still  taller  and  narrower,  like  iho.  cre^teaux  m  z. 
fortification.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  principal  necropohs  of  the 
Etruscan  city.  If  you  enter  any  of  the  tombs,  which  are  in  all  the  faces 
of  the  low  cliffs  into  which  the  ground  breaks,  you  will  find  one  general 
plan  prevailing,  characteristic  of  the  site.  Unlike  those  of  Sutri,  where 
the  door  opens  at  once  into  the  tomb,  it  here  leads  into  a  small  ante- 
chamber, seldom  as  much  as  five  feet  square,  which  has  an  oblong  hole 
in  the  ceiling,  running  up  like  a  chimney  to  the  level  of  the  ground 
above.  The  tomb  itself  is  generally  spacious — from  twelve  to  twenty 
feet  square,  or  of  an  oblong  form — never  circular — mostly  with  a  massive 
square  pillar  in  the  centre,  hewn  out  of  the  rock,  or,  in  many  cases, 
with  a  thick  partition-wall  of  rock  instead,  dividing  the  tomb  into  two 
equal  parts.  The  front  of  this,  whether  it  be  pillar  or  projecting  wall, 
is  generally  hollowed  out,  sometimes  in  recesses,  long  and  shallow,  and 
one  over  the  other,  to  contain  bodies,  sometimes  in  upright  niches,  for 
cinerary  urns  or  votive  offerings.  Around  the  walls  are  long  recesses  for 
bodies,  in  double  or  triple  tiers,  just  as  in  the  catacombs  and  tombs  of 
the  early  Christians,  forcibly  reminding  you,  by  their  size,  form,  and 
arrangement,  of  the  berths  in  a  steamer's  cabin.  The  door-posts  are 
frequently  grooved  to  hold  the  stone  slabs  with  which  the  tombs  were 
closed.  The  chimney  in  the  ceiling  of  the  ante-chamber  probably  served 
several  purposes— as  a  spirame^i,  or  vent-hole,  to  let  off  the  effluvium  of 
the  decaying  bodies  or  burnt  ashes — as  a  means  of  pouring  in  libations 
to  the  graves  of  the  dead — and  as  a  means  of  entrance  on  emergency 
after  the  doors  were  closed.  That  they  were  used  for  the  latter  purpose 
is  evident,  for  in  the  sides  of  these  chimneys  may  be  seen  small  niches, 
about  a  foot  or  eighteen  inches  one  above  the  other,  manifestly  cut  for 
the  hands  and  feet.  These  chimneys  were  probably  left  open  for  some 
time,  till  the  effluvium  had  passed  off,  and  then  were  covered  in, 
generally  with  large  hewn  blocks.  Similar  trap-doorways  to  tombs  are 
found  occasionally  at  Corneto,  Ferento,  Cervetri,  and  elsewhere  in 
Etruria,  but  nowhere  in  such  numbers  as  at  Civita  Castellana  and 
Falleri,  where  they  form  a  leading  characteristic  of  the  sepulchres ." — 
Dennis,  Cities  of  Etruria. 

One  of  the  tombs  near  the  bridge  is  decorated  with  a  row 


GORGE  OF  CI  VITA  CASTELLANA.  39 

of  niches,  five  on  each  side  of  the  doorway ;  on  the  next 
tomb  to  this  is  inscribed — 'Tiicthnu'  in  Etruscan  letters, 
once  filled  in  with  red.  Another  tomb  hard  by  has  an 
Etruscan  inscription  of  two  lines,  but  much  obliterated. 
Fragments  of  Etruscan  masonry  remain  here  and  there  along 
the  edge  of  the  cliffs,  serving  as  the  foundation  of  mediaeval 
walls.  Wherever  you  turn  around  Civita  Castellana,  the 
ravine  seems  to  pursue  you,  as  if  the  earth  were  opening 
under  your  feet ;  so  does  it  twist  around  the  town.  Each  turn 
is  a  picture  more  beautiful  than  the  last,  and  ever  and 
again  beyond  the  rocky  avenues,  Soracte,  steeped  in  violet 
shadows,  appears  rising  out  of  the  tender  green  of  the  plain. 
The  gorge  has  been  compared  to  the  famous  Tajo  of  Ronda ; 
it  has  no  waterfalls  and  the  cliffs  are  not  as  high,  but  it  is 
quite  as  full  of  colour  and  beauty.  The  traveller  who  merely 
spends  a  few  hours  in  Civita  knows  nothing  of  it.  In  the 
early  morning  the  hollows  are  filled  with  mist,  while  the  sun 
lights  up  here  and  there  a  crag  crested  with  ilex  and  over- 
hung with  clematis  and  honeysuckle.  Near  the  bridge  a 
huge  block  of  grey  rock  divides  the  valley  and  stands  level 
at  the  top  with  the  surrounding  country,  from  which  it  must 
once  have  been  riven, — like  an  inaccessible  island  fortress  in 
the  midst  of  the  ravine.  Up  into  the  town  winds  the  ancient 
way,  a  steep  zig-zag  following  the  curves  of  the  rock,  and 
here  are  fountains  where  the  dresses  of  the  women  who 
come  down  to  draw  water,  or  to  wash  at  the  great  basons  on 
the  ledge,  add  bright  patches  of  colour  to  the  view.  While 
upon  the  face  of  the  rocks  and  along  the  edge  of  paths  in 
the  precipices,  so  narrow  now  that  only  goats  can  follow  them, 
yawn  everywhere  the  open  mouths  of  cavemed  sepulchres, 
the  dead  pursuing  the  living  up  to  the  very  gates  of  the  city. 


40  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

About  three  miles  beyond  the  Ponte  Terrano,  stranded  and 
deserted  in  the  upland  plain,  so  wildly  beautiful  from  its 
thickets  of  broom  and  cistus  and  its  primaeval  oak  woods,  and 
backed  by  the  lovely  ranges  of  the  Ciminian  hills,  stands  the 
utterly  ruined  city  of  Falleri.  One  of  the  finest  Etruscan 
tombs  in  this  country  is  passed  on  the  way  thither.  It  is  in 
a  hollow,  on  the  right  of  the  road,  presenting  a  three-arched 
portico,  with  a  boldly-cut  cornice,  sculptured  in  the  rock. 
Within  is  an  ante-chamber  leading  into  the  principal  tomb. 
Here  the  flat  ceiling  is  supported  by  a  square  pillar,  all 
around  are  benches  for  sarcophagi,  and  the  walls  and 
pillars  are  perforated  with  niches  for  urns  or  ornaments. 
Several  other  tombs  exist  close  by,  but  this  may  be  taken  as 
a  good  specimen  of  an  Etruscan  sepulchre,  and  is  more 
architecturally  interesting  than  any  of  the  tombs  at  Castel 
d'Asso  or  Bieda. 

Soon  after  ascending  the  hill  beyond  the  tombs,  Falleri 
comes  in  sight,  its  massive  walls  and  towers  rising  above  the 
ploughed  land,  about  twenty-five  feet  in  height.  They  are 
almost  perfect,  but  there  are  no  ruins  standing  of  the  city 
within  them. 

"There  is  nothing  to  recommend  the  site  of  Falerii,  as  a  strong  posi- 
tion. The  whole  of  the  northern  wall  of  the  city  stands  only  as  much 
above  the  plain,  as  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  circumstance  of  having 
been  built  upon  the  earth  thrown  out  of  the  ditch.  In  this  part  of  the 
wall  there  are  nineteen  towers,  all  remaining  in  a  state  of  great  per- 
fection, fifteen  or  sixteen  courses  in  height ;  but,  from  their  position, 
they  are  of  little  strength.  About  nineteen  more  are  on  the  second  side 
of  the  triangle,  placed  on  the  verge  of  precipices  :  the  third  side  is  de- 
fended not  only  by  walls,  but  by  a  rocky  descent  into  a  deep  glen, 
watered  by  a  pretty  stream,  which  falls  into  the  Tiber.  The  vestiges  of 
an  ancient  aqueduct  may  be  traced  from  the  upper  country,  and  a 
modern  one  passes  near  the  stream  in  the  glen  below. 

The  walls  were  of  tufa ;  in  some  parts  twelve  courses  of  blocks  are 


FALLERL 


41 


still  remaining,  and  in  others  as  many  as  fifteen  or  sixteen.  The  solidity 
of  the  towers  is  singular ;  they  do  not  project  internally  beyond  the 
thickness  of  the  walls,  and  some  of  them  have  no  more  than  five  stones 
at  the  base,  and  no  empty  space  within.  The  distance  between  them 
is  about  fifty  yards.  Above  the  parapet  the  towers  were  chambered  ; 
and  being  pierced  by  doors,  permitted  an  uninterrupted  walk  on  the 
top  of  the  walls  behind  the  battlements.  Perhaps  no  place  presents  a 
more  perfect  specimen  of  ancient  military  architecture ;  its  preservation 
in  modern  times  may  be  principally  ascribed  to  the  seclusion  and  com- 
parative desertion  of  the  district." — Gelis^  Roman  Tocography. 

la  the  turfy  enclosure  which  the  walls  encircle  stand  only 
the  remains  of  a  mediaeval  abbey — Santa  Maria  di  Falieri, 
with  its  beautiful  church,  of  the  twelfth  century,  utterly 
ruined  since  the  roof  fell  in  thirty  years  ago,  and  overgrown 
with  rank  vegetation,  though  retaining  all  the  delicate 
sculpture  of  its  pillars  and  cornices,  evidently  constructed  of 
materials  taken  from  the  ancient  city.  The  cart-track  which 
diverges  from  the  front  of  the  church  leads  to  the  Porta  di 
Giove,  a.  fine  gate  admirably  preserved  and  flanked  by 
towers.  It  takes  its  name  from  the  sculptured  head  over 
the  key-stone  of  the  arch,  though  this  more  probably  repre- 
sents Apollo  than  Jupiter. 


Porta  di  Giove.     Fallen. 

To  enjoy  Falleri  properly,  one  must  make  the  circuit  of 


42  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  walls,  which  are  nearly  triangular,  and  which,  on  the 

side  which  overhangs  the  stream,  rise  ahiiost  perpendicular 

with  the  tufa  rocks.     H  ere  and  there  they  are  hollowed  into 

tombs  and  niches,  while  on  the  other  side  of  the  narrow 

ravine  are  tall  cliffs  full  of  small  caverned  sepulchres.     In 

the  distance  beyond  the  broomy  heights,  soars  Soracte,  ever 

one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  mountains.     Below  flows  the 

rivulet  Miccino,  one  of  the  waters  which  Pliny  describes  as 

having  the  power  of  imparting  a  white  colour  to  cattle.     In 

the  southern  wall  of  the  city  is  the  Porta  del  Bove^  so  called 

from  the  bull's-head  upon  its  key-stone.     Falleri  was  a  city 

constructed  entirely  upon  the  Etruscan  model,  but  was  built 

in   the   year  of  Rome   512,  after  the  destruction   of  the 

ancient  city,  when  it  was  called  Falerium  Novum.    Zonaras, 

who   describes   the  capture  of  Falerium  Vetus,  says  that 

"  the  ancient  city  situated  on  a  steep  and  lofty  height  was 

destroyed,  and  another  built  on  a  site  '*asy  of  access."     The 

name  of  the  ancient  city  was  transferred  with  the  inhabitants, 

and  when  the  town  on  the  earlier  site  rose  from  its  ruins,  in 

the  ninth  century,  it  was  with  the  name  of  Civita  Castellana. 

The  second  town  was  erected  by  the  Romans,  but  at  a  time 

when  Etruscan  arts  were  most  admired  and  copied,  and  it  was 

probably  raised  on  or  near  the  site  of  some  small  Etruscan 

citadel,  to  which  many  of  the  tombs  in  its  rock-barriers  may 

have  belonged. 

"This  celebrated  city,  unlike  the  other  rivals  of  Rome,  has  preserved 
entire  the  circuit  of  her  ancient  walls.  Not  one  ancient  building  is 
standing  within  them  :  they  have  survived  all  that  they  were  erected  to 
defend.  It  is  very  fine  to  see  the  enormous  masses  of  travertine 
masonry  glowing  in  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun,  and  throwing  their  long 
purple  shadows  on  the  bright  fresh  green  of  the  spring  grass  and  blossom- 
ing thickets.  And  most  of  all,  where  the  walls,  skirting  one  of  the 
deep  glens,  are  built  down  even  into  its  depths,  presenting  a  face  of 


SORACTE.  43 

solid  masonry  not  less  than  fifty  feet  in  height.  One  longs  to  have  a 
painter  there,  to  catch  the  warm  glow  of  the  great  wall,  lichened  and 
weather-stained,  as  it  descends  into  the  verdure,  and  then  into  the  deep 
shadow  of  the  underlying  ravine  ;  then  the  same  is  again  repeated,  but 
with  all  the  varieties  of  receding  colour,  as,  promontory  after  promon- 
tory, the  defences  run  up  the  glen  ;  till  at  length  a  barrier  of  high  rocks 
closes  in  its  head,  over  which,  after  a  belt  of  wooded  country,  rises  the 
graceful  group  of  Soracte,  in  loveliest,  tenderest  blue.  But  no  painter 
can  give  us  the  fragrance  of  the  spring-flowers  which  fills  the  air,  nor 
the  gushing  notes  of  many  nightingales  from  the  balmy  thickets  below." 
— Dean  Alford. 

On  the  first  of  May  we  drove  out  from  Civita  Castellana 
to  spend  the  day  upon  Soracte,  emerging  from  the  town 
through  an  Etruscan  cutting  in  the  rock,  which  is  lined 
with  tombs.  The  excursion  is  a  very  easy  one,  though 
when  we  made  it  the  stone  bridges  in  the  hollow  had  all 
been  washed  away  in  a  flood,  and  a  man  had  to  be  sent  on 
to  help  in  taking  our  horses  out  and  in  drawing  our  car- 
riage over  a  temporary  wooden  structure. 

No  drive  can  be  uninteresting  with  such  an  object  as 
Soracte  before  one,  ever  becoming  more  defined.  Those 
who  look  at  it  from  Rome  have  no  idea  whatever  of  the 
majestic  character  of  the  mountain  as  seen  from  this  side, 
where  it  rises  abruptly  in  the  midst  of  the  rich  green  plain 
of  the  table-land.  Dennis  compares  it  to  the  rock  of  Gib- 
raltar. Ampbre  says  that  it  resembles  a  blue  island  in  the 
^gean  Sea.  At  first  it  is  a  sharp  blue  wedge  against  the 
sky,  darkened  by  the  woods  with  which  it  is  covered,  then 
it  lengthens  out  into  several  peaks  of  sharp  cliff"  succeed- 
ing one  another  and  crowned  by  white  convents  and  her- 
mitages. The  lower  slopes  are  rich  and  green.  They  melt 
gradually  into  thick  olive  groves,  which  terminate  in  steeps 
of  bare  grey  rock,  white  and  dazzling  when  the  sun  falls 
upon  them. 


44  JDAVS  NEAR  ROME. 

It  is  a  mark  of  a  severe  winter  when  Soracte  is  capped 
with  snow  : — 

*•  Vides,  ut  alta  stet  nive  candidum 
Soracte — " 

Horace^  Od.  i.  9. 

and,  thus  crested,  it  is  the  most  beautiful  feature  in  the  well- 
known  view  from  the  terrace  of  the  Pamfili-Doria  villa  at 
Rome.  But  all  the  snow  will  have  melted  before  the  charms 
of  the  fresh  spring  have  attracted  visitors  to  Civita  Cas- 
tellana,  and  its  lower  slopes  will  be  breaking  into  such  a  love- 
liness of  tender  green  as  is  quite  indescribable.  Though  of 
no  great  altitude,  Soracte,  from  its  isolation,  its  form,  and  its 
glorious  colour,  is  far  more  impressive  than  many  mountains 
which  are  five  times  its  height. 

'*  Athos,  Olympus,  Etna,  Atlas,  made 
These  hills  seem  things  of  lesser  dignity, 
All,  save  the  lone  Soracte's  height,  displayed 
Not  now  in  snow,  which  asks  the  lyric  Roman's  aid 
For  our  remembrance,  and  from  out  the  plain 
Heaves  like  a  long- swept  wave  about  to  break, 
And  on  the  crest  hangs  pausing." 

Byron  J  Childe  Harold^  c.  iv. 

Separated  from  the  main  mass  of  the  mountain  on  the 
Roman  side,  is  an  attendant  rock  supporting  the  picturesque 
little  town  of  Sanf  Oreste,  which  has  given  its  modem  name 
to  Soracte.  At  the  foot  of  this  smaller  hill  is  the  fountain  of 
Felonica,  marking  the  side  of  Feronia,  where  the  peasants 
of  the  surrounding  districts  offered  their  firstfruits  to  the 
great  Sabine  goddess,  who  would  seem  to  have  been  iden- 
tical with  Proserpine. 

•'The  most  important  of  all  the  Italian  fairs  was  that  which  was  held 
at  Soracte  in  the  grove  of  Feronia,  a  situation  than  which  none  could 
be  found  more  favourable  for  the  exchange  of  commodities  among  the 


FERONIA. 


45 


three  great  nations.  That  high  isolated  mountain,  which  appears  to 
have  been  set  down  by  Natvre  herself  in  the  midst  of  the  plain  of  the  Tiber 
as  a  goal  for  the  pilgrim,  lay  on  the  boundary  which  separated  the  Etrus- 
can and  Sabine  lands  (to  the  latter  of  which  it  appears  mostly  to  have 
belonged),  and  it  was  likewise  easily  accessible  from  Latium  and  Um- 
bria.  Roman  merchants  regularly  made  their  appearance  there,  and 
the  wrongs  of  which  they  complained  gave  rise  to  many  a  quarrel  with 
the  Sabines." — Mommsen's  Hist,  of  RonUy  ch.  xiii. 

It  was  narrated  by  Strabo,  that  pilgrims  to  Feronia,  pos- 
sessed with  her  spirit,  could  walk  with  bare  feet,  uninjured, 
over  burning  coals.  The  goddess  was  honoured  with  such 
valuable  offerings  of  gold  and  silver,  that  Hannibal  thought 
it  worth  while  to  turn  aside  hither,  to  plunder  the  famous 
shrine. 


S.  Oreste  from  Soracte. 


"Annibal  alia  au  pied  du  Soracte  piller  le  sanctuaire  de  Feronia.; 
les  paysanes  capenates,  aussi  devotes  k  la  grande  deesse  sabine  que  leurs 
descendants  peuvent  I'etre  i  Saint  Oreste,  offraient  k  ce   sanctuaire 


46  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

celebre  les  premices  de  leurs  moissons.  Elle  recevait  aussi  des  offran- 
des  en  or  et  en  argent.  Annibal  traita  le  sanctuaire  de  Feronia  comme  le 
general  Buonaparte  devait  traiter  un  jour  le  sanctuaire  de  Notre-Dame 
de  Lorette  ;  il  le  depouilla." — Amp^re^  Hist.  Rome,  iii.  lOO. 

A  carriage  can  ascend  the  mountain  as  far  as  S.  Oreste, 
and  here  we  left  it  near  the  gate  of  the  town  and  followed  a 
foot-path,  which  turns  up  to  the  left  by  a  small  chapel.  It 
is  about  two  miles  to  the  top.  Most  of  the  convents  are  in 
ruins.  8ta.  Lucia  is  the  first  which  comes  in  sight,  on  the 
crest  of  the  nearest  peak,  then  Sta.  Romana  on  the  eastern 
slope.  Then,  by  the  pilgrims'  road  which  winds  through  an 
avenue  of  ancient  ilexes  and  elms,  we  reached  the  gates  of 
Sta.  Maria  delle  Grazie.  The  long  drive,  and  the  steep  walk 
in  the  great  heat,  had  made  us  faint  with  hunger  and  thirst. 
The  monks  came  out  with  wine,  and  slices  of  Bologna 
sausage  and  delicious  coarse  bread,  to  a  room  at  the  gate, 
for  ladies  are  not  allowed  to  enter  the  walls,  and  never  was 
refreshment  more  acceptable.  There  are  only  thirteen 
monks  now,  who  live  an  active  life  of  charity,  and  whose 
advice  and  instruction  are  widely  sought  by  the  country 
people  around.  There  is  little  fear  of  their  suppression,  as 
they  have  scarcely  any  finances,  and  their  humble  dwellings 
on  the  bare  crag,  far  from  all  human  habitations,  could  not 
be  sold  for  anything,  and  would  be  useless  to  the  present 
Government.  Those  we  saw  were  a  grand  group ;  one,  a 
tall  and  commanding  figure  with  handsome  face  and  flashing 
eyes,  told  us  of  the  peace  and  blessing  he  received  from  his 
solitary  life  here,  and  of  the  ever-growing  interest  of  the 
place  and  all  its  associations  j  another,  of  a  coarse  common 
expression,  spoke  in  murmuring  tones,  and  was  sceptical  about 
all  his  stories,  which  he  wound  up  always  by  "  E  tradizione ; " 


ASCENT  OF  SORACTE.  47 

a  third,  was  an  old  venerable  man  of  eighty-six,  who  had 
passed  his  life  in  these  solitudes,  a  life  so  evidently  given  up 
to  prayer  that  his  spirit  seemed  only  half  to  belong  to  earth. 
We  spoke  to  him  of  the  change  which  was  coming  over  the 
monastic  life,  but  he  did  not  murmur — "  fe  la  volonth.  di 
Dio ; "  only  when  he  talked  of  the  great  poverty  of  the 
people  from  the  present  taxation,  and  of  their  reduced 
means  of  helping  them,  he  lamented  a  little.  He  said  the 
people  came  to  him  every  day,  and  they  asked  why  they 
had  such  sufferings  to  bear,  that  they  had  been  quite  happy 
before,  and  had  never  wished  or  sought  for  any  change ;  and 
that  he  urged  them  to  patience  and  prayer,  and  to  the  faith 
that  though  outward  events  might  change  and  earthly  com- 
forts be  swept  away,  God,  who  led  His  children  by  mysterious 
teaching  which  we  could  not  fathom,  was  Himself  always  the 
same. 

The  three  monks  went  with  us  to  the  top,  where  the 
temple  of  Apollo,  the  "  guardian  of  the  holy  Soracte,"  for- 
merly stood,  and  where  the  Hirpini^  as  the  people  of  the 
surrounding  district  were  called,  came  to  offer  their  annual 
sacrifices,  and  were,  on  that  account,  says  Pliny,  exempted 
from  military  service  and  other  public  duties. 

"Summe  deflm,  sancti  custos  Soractis  Apollo, 
Quem  primi  colimus,  cui  pineus  ardor  acervo 
Pascitur  :  et  medium  freti  pietate  per  igtiem 
Cultores  multa  premimus  vestigia  pruna  ; 
Da,  pater,  hoc  nostris  aboleri  dedecus  armis." 

Virgil,  ^n.  xi.  785. 

**Tum  Soracte  satum,  praestantem  corpore  et  armis, 
^quanum  noscens  ;  (patrio  cui  ritus  in  arvo, 
Quum  pius  arcitenens  accensis  gaudet  acervis, 
Exta  ter  innocuos  Iceto  portare  per  ignes) 
Sic  in  ApoUinea  semper  vestigia  pruna 


4?  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Inviolata  teras,  victorque  vaporis  ad  aras 
Dona  serenato  referas  solennia  Phcebo." 

Sil.  Ital  V.  175. 

On  the  supposed  site  of  the  ancient  temple,  2270  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  perched  on  the  highest  points  of 
the  perpendicular  crags,  its  walls  one  with  their  precipices, 
now  stands  the  monastery  of  S.  Silvestro.  It  is  a  sublime 
position,  removed  from  and  above  everything  else.  Hawks 
circle  around  its  huge  cliffs,  and  are  the  only  sign  of  life. 


Convent  of  S.  Silvestro,  Summit  of  Soracte. 

On  a  lower  terrace  are  the  church  and  hermitage  of  S.  An- 
tonio^ ruined  and  deserted.  To  these  solitudes  came  Con- 
stantine  to  seek  for  Sylvester  the  hermit,  whom  he  found  here 
in  a  cave  and  led  away  to  raise  to  the  papal  throne,  walking 
before  him  as  he  rode  upon  his  mule,  as  is  represented  in 
the  ancient  frescoes  of  the  Quattro  Incoronati. 


SUMMIT  OF  SORACTE  49 

*'  Sylvester,  who  had  been  elected  bishop  of  Rome,  fled  from  the  per- 
secution, and  dwelt  for  some  time  in  a  cavern,  near  the  summit  of 
Soracte.  While  he  lay  there  concealed,  the  Emperor  Constantine  was 
attacked  by  a  horrible  leprosy  :  and  having  called  to  him  the  priests  of 
his  false  gods,  they  advised  that  he  should  bathe  himself  in  a  bath  of 
children's  blood,  and  three  thousand  children  were  collected  for  this  pur- 
pose. And,  as  he  proceeded  in  his  chariot  to  the  place  where  the  bath 
was  to  be  prepared,  the  mothers  of  these  children  threw  themselves  in 
his  way  with  dishevelled  hair,  weeping,  and  crying  aloud  for  mercy. 
Then  Constantine  was  moved  to  tears,  and  he  commanded  that  the 
children  should  be  restored  to  their  mothers  with  great  gifts,  in  recom- 
pense of  what  they  had  suffered. 

"  On  that  same  night,  as  he  lay  asleep,  S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul  appeared 
at  his  bedside,  and  they  stretched  their  hands  over  him,  and  said — '  Be- 
cause thou  hast  feared  to  spill  the  innocent  blood,  Jesus  Christ  has  sent 
us  to  bring  thee  good  counsel.  Send  to  Sylvester,  who  lies  hidden 
among  the  mountains,  and  he  shall  show  thee  the  pool,  in  which  having 
washed  three  times,  thou  shalt  be  clean  of  thy  leprosy  ;  and  henceforth 
thou  shalt  adore  the  God  of  the  Christians,  and  thou  shalt  cease  to  per- 
secute and  oppress  them.'  Then  Constantine,  awaking  from  this  vision, 
sent  to  search  for  Sylvester.  And  he,  when  he  saw  the  soldiers 
of  the  Emperor,  supposed  it  was  to  lead  him  to  death  :  but  when  he 
appeared  before  the  Emperor,  Constantine  saluted  him,  and  said,  *I 
would  know  of  thee  who  are  those  two  gods  who  appeared  to  me  in  the 
vision  of  the  night  ? '  And  Sylvester  replied,  '  They  were  not  gods,  but  the 
apostles  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.*  Then  Constantine  desired  that  he 
would  show  him  the  effigies  of  these  two  apostles  ;  and  Sylvester  sent 
for  the  pictures  of  S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul,  which  were  in  the  possession 
of  certain  pious  Christians.  Constantine,  having  beheld  them,  saw  that 
they  were  the  same  who  had  appeared  to  him  in  his  dream.  Then  Syl- 
vester baptized  him,  and  he  came  out  of  the  font  cured  of  his  malady." 
— Jameson! s  Sacred  Art. 

The  oratory  of  Sylvester  was  enclosed  in  a  monastery 
founded  in  746  by  Carloman,  son  of  Charles  Martel,  and 
uncle  of  Charlemagne,  and  though  later  buildings  have  suc- 
ceeded upon  the  same  spot,  and  the  existing  edifice  is  exter- 
nally of  1500,  it  encloses  much  of  the  church  of  Carloman, 
and  the  more  ancient  hermitage  of  Sylvester.  The  walls  of 
the  church  are  covered  with  mediaeval  frescoes,  fading,  but 

VOL.    II.  4 


50  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

still  very  beautiful.  On  the  right  of  the  entrance  is  S. 
Buenaventura;  then  come  S.  Anne,  the  Virgin,  S.  Roch, 
and  S.  Sebastian,  but  all  have  been  much  injured  by  the 
goat-herds  who  used  to  shelter  their  flocks  here  when  the 
church  was  utterly  deserted.  The  beautiful  old  high-altar 
is  richly  carved  in  stone  taken  from  the  mountain  itself. 
Behind  it  are  a  curious  holy  water  basin,  and  a  priest's  cham- 
ber. A  martyr's  stone — "  Pietra  di  Paragone  " — may  be 
seen  in  the  wall. 

Beneath  the  lofty  tribune  is  the  cell  of  Sylvester,  half  cut 
in  the  mountain  itself.  It  encloses  the  sloping  mass  of  rock 
which  formed  the  bed  of  his  hermitage,  and  his  stone  seat. 
Here  also  is  the  altar  on  which,  first  Sylvester  himself,  and 
afterwards  Gregory  the  Great,  said  mass.  On  the  walls  are 
dim  frescoes  of  the  seventh  century,  faintly  lighted  by  the 
rays  stealing  in  above  the  altar — Christ,  S.  Silvester,  S. 
Gregory,  and  the  Archangel  Michael.  A  long  inscription 
in  the  upper  church  tells  the  story  of  a  later  sainted  monk 
of  Soracte,  Nonnosus,  who  is  reported  to  have  performed 
three  miracles  here.  The  first  was  when  a  monk  broke  a 
valuable  lamp — "  una  lampada  orientale  " — quite  into  small 
pieces  in  this  church,  and  was  in  despair  about  the  con- 
sequences, when  Nonnosus  fell  on  his  knees  and  prayed, 
and  the  culprit  saw  the  fragments  miraculously  joined  toge- 
ther again.  In  the  second,  the  olive-gardens  of  the  convent 
failed,  and  the  abbot  was  about  to  send  out  to  buy  up  the 
oil  of  the  paesani,  when  Nonnosus  took  the  convent  oil — 
"  il  poco  che  fu  " — and  it  was  miraculously  multiplied.  In 
the  third,  he  lifted  by  the  force  of  prayer  a  large  stone, 
which  had  fallen,  back  to  its  mountain  ledge,  where  it  may 
still  be  seen  in  proof  of  the  power  of  this  saint. 


THE  S  TOR  Y  OF  SORA  C  TE.  51 

Behind  the  convent  is  its  little  garden,  where  legend  tells 
that  S.  Sylvester  would  sow  one  day  his  turnips  for  the  meal 
of  the  morrow,  and  that  they  were  miraculously  brought  to 
perfection  during  the  night.  There  is  a  grand  view  from 
this  over  all  the  wide-spreading  country,  but  especially  into 
the  blue  gorges  of  the  Sabina,  and  the  monks  described  the 
beautiful  effect  when  each  of  the  countless  villages  which 
can  be  seen  from  hence,  lights  its  bonfire  on  the  eve  of  the 
Ascension. 

The  last  monks  who  lived  in  S.  Silvestro  were  Franciscans,, 
and  they  left  it  in  1700,  because  seven  of  their  number  were 
then  killed  by  lightning  in  a  storm.  Our  monastic  friends 
accompanied  us  on  our  return  as  far  as  Sta.  Maria  delle 
Grazie,  and  as  we  turned  to  descend  the  mountain  path,  the 
old  monk  of  eighty-six,  standing  at  the  head  of  the  steps, 
stretched  out  his  hands  and  most  solemnly  blessed  us — 
"  May  the  blessed  Saviour  keep  and  guide  you,  and  may 
His  holy  angels  walk  with  you  in  all  your  ways." 

As  we  slowly  descended  the  mountain,  we  looked  down 
through  the  woods  to  Santa  Romana  at  its  eastern  base, 
near  which  are  the  deep  fissures  called  Voragini,  whence 
pestilential  vapours  arise.  Pliny  mentions  these  exhalations 
from  Soracte  as  fatal  to  birds,  and  quotes  Varro,  who  speaks 
of  a  fountain  on  Soracte  four  feet  in  width,  which  flowed  at 
sunrise,  and  appeared  to  boil,  and  of  which,  when  birds  drank, 
they  died.  By  Servius  a  story  is  told  of  iome  shepherds  who 
were  sacrificing  to  Pluto,  when  the  victims  were  carried  off 
from  the  very  altar  by  wolves.  The  shepherds  pursuing  them 
came  upon  the  cave  whence  the  pestilential  vapours  issued, 
which  destroyed  all  who  came  within  their  reach.  A.  malady 
ensued,  and  the  oracle  declared  that  the  only  remedy  was  to 


52  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME 

do  as  the  wolves  did — to  live  by  plunder.*  Hence  they 
were  called  Hirpini  Sorani — Pluto's  wolves,  from  hirpus^ 
which  was  Sabine  for  a  wolf,  and  Soramis,  another  name  for 
Pluto;  and  accordingly,  robbers  there  always  were  on 
Soracte  till  the  forests  which  clothed  the  whole  neighbour- 
hood were  for  the  most  part  cut  down  about  twenty  years 
ago.  With  the  robbers  the  wolves  and  bears,  which  abound- 
ed on  the  sides  of  the  mountain,  disappeared,  many  persons 
being  still  alive  who  have  had  adventurous  escapes  from 
them.  Cato  says  that  there  were  also  wild  goats  upon 
Soracte,  of  such  wonderful  activity,  that  they  could  leap 
sixty  feet  at  one  bound  !  f 

From  S.  Oreste  one  looks  across  a  wooded  country  to  the 
villag«  of  Rignano^  about  3^  miles  distant.  It  claims  to  be 
the  birth-place  of  Caesar  Borgia.  Fragments  of  ancient 
columns  and  altars  abound  there,  and  in  the  piazza  is  pre- 
served a  curious  primitive  cannon.  Rignano  gives  a  title  to 
the  eldest  son  of  Duke  Massimo. 

Seven  miles  south-east  of  Rignano  is  a  hill  crested  by 

the  ruined  church  of  San  Martino,  which  occupies  the  site 

of  the  Etruscan  Capena^  the  faithful  ally  of  Veii,  indeed  Cato 

says  that  Veii  was  founded  by  the  Capenates.     The  citadel 

was   otrongly  defended   by   nature,   being  situated  on  an 

insular  rock  connected  with  the  neighbouring  heights  by  a 

kind  of  isthmus,  and  was  consequently  almost  impregnable. 

It  was  never  taken  by  siege,  but  capitulated  to  the  Romans, 

after  vainly  joining  with  the  Falisci,  in  an  attempt  to  succour 

Veii. 

"After  the  fall  of  Veii,  Valerius  and  Servilius  marched  to  Capena ; 
and,   the  inhabitants  not  daring  to  quit  their  walls,   the  Romans  de- 

*  iEn.  xi.  785.  t  Cato  ap.  Varron.  Re  Rust.  ii.  cap.  3. 


CAPEISTA.  53 

stroyed  the  country,  and  particularly  the  fruit-trees,  for  which  it  was 
celebrated." — Livy^  v.  24. 

There  are  some  small  remains  of  the  foundations  of  walls 
and  towers,  and  of  reticulated  work,  visible  here  and  there 
amid  the  thickets  of  wild-pear,  descendants  of  the  fruit-trees 
mentioned  by  Livy,  which  are  covered  with  blossom  in 
spring. 

"Placed,  like  Alba  and  Gabii,  upon  the  verge  of  a  volcano,  Capena 
assumed  the  form  of  a  crescent ;  the  citadel  was  on  the  highest  point 
westward,  and  communicated  by  a  steep  path  with  the  Via  Veientana. 
This  road  may  be  traced  in  the  valley  below,  running  towards  the 
Grammiccia  and  the  natural  opening  of  the  crater  on  the  east ;  and  it 
was  only  here,  as  the  remains  testify,  that  carriages  could  enter  the  city. 

"On  ascending  from  this  quarter,  a  fine  terrace  is  observed,  which  is 
evidently  placed  on  the  top  of  the  ancient  walls.  The  squared  blocks 
with  which  the  place  is  strewed,  show  that  these  were  parallelograms  of 
volcanic  stone.  They  may  yet  be  traced  by  their  foundations  round  the 
summit  of  the  hill. 

"  Capena  has  something  in  it  altogether  peculiar:  the  situation,  though 
commanding,  seems  singularly  secluded,  the  country  is  once  more  wholly 
in  a  state  of  nature ;  nothing  of  animated  life,  except  here  and  there 
flocks  of  goats  or  sheep,  feeding  on  some  green  eminence  or  in  the 
valleys  below,  which  are  spotted  with  such  innumerable  patches  of 
underwood,  that,  were  it  not  for  the  brousing  of  these  animals,  it  would 
soon  become  a  forest.  The  desolation  is  complete  :  Silvanus,  instead 
of  Ceres,  is  in  full  possession  of  the  soil." — Cells    Topoi^niphy  of  Rome. 

"  The  view  from  the  height  of  Capena  is  wildly  beautiful.  The  deep 
hollow  on  the  south,  with  its  green  carpet :  the  steep  hills  overhanging 
it,  dark  with  wood — perhaps  the  groves  celebrated  by  Virgil :  the  bare 
swelling  ground  to  the  north,  with  Soracte  towering  above  :  the  snow- 
capt  Apennines  in  the  eastern  horizon  :  the  deep  silence,  the  seclusion  ; 
the  absence  of  human  habitations  (not  even  a  shepherd's  hut)  within  the 
sphere  of  vision,  save  the  distant  town  of  Sant'  Oreste,  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  gray  rock  on  which  it  stands  ; — it  is  a  scene  of 
more  singular  desolation  than  belongs  to  the  site  of  any  other  Etruscan 
city  in  this  district  of  the  land." — Dettnis'  Cities  of  Etruria. 

The  stream  of  the  Grammiccia  probably  once  bore  the 
name  of  Capenas. 


54  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"Dives  ubi  ante  omnes  colitur  Feronia  luco, 
Et  sacer  humectat  fluvialia  rura  Capenas." 

Sil.  Ital.  xiii.  84. 

The  site  of  Capena  is  best  visited  on  horseback,  and 

may  be  reached  from  Rome  by  leaving  the  Via  Flaminia  on 

the  left  at  the  Monte  della  Guardia.     About  three  miles  from 

Capena,  on  the  Tiber,  is  Fiano,  with  the  castle  of  the  Duke 

of  that  name.     This  village  is  supposed  to  mark  the  site  of 

the  Flavinium  of  Virgil : — 

"Hi  Soractis  habent  arces,  Flaviniaque  arva, 
Et  Cimini  cum  monte  lacum  lucosque  Capenos." 

y^n.  vii.  696, 

and  the  Flavina  of  Silius  : — 

"Quique  tuos,  Flavina,  focos,  Sabatia  quique 
Stagna  tenent,  Ciminique  lacum." 

Sil.  viii.  492. 


Six  miles  north  of  Civita  Castellana  is  Corchiano,  a  most 
picturesque  village  occupying  an  Etruscan  site,  and  surround- 
ed, like  almost  all  the  towns  of  Etruria,  with  ravines  full  of  mu- 
tilated sepulchres.  One  of  these,  half  a  mile  distant,  on  the 
way  to  Falleri,  is  inscribed  Larth.  Vel.  Amies,  in  Etruscan  cha- 
racters. Three  miles  further  is  Galkse,  beautifully  situated 
on  a  rock  at  the  junction  of  two  ravines.  Canon  Nardoni 
has  written  a  work  to  prove  that  this  is  the  ^quum  Faliscum, 
mentioned  by  Strabo,  Virgil,  and  Silius.  It  contains  some 
obscure  Roman  remains,  and  there  are  many  Etruscan  tombs 
in  the  neighbouring  valleys.  Gallese  was  early  the  seat  of 
a  bishopric. 

Six  miles  north-west  of  Corchiano  is  Vignanello,  and  four 
miles  beyond  it  Soriano,  both  Etruscan  sites.* 

♦  For  all  these  places  see  Dennis^  Cities  and  Cemeteries  0/  Etruria,  vol.  iL 


FESCENmUM.  55 

Dennis  believes  that  he  has  identified  the  fragments  of  a 
city,  half  covered  with  wood,  but  marked  by  the  ruined 
church  of  S.  Silvestro  ("  a  mile  and  a  half  west  of  Ponte 
Felice,  on  the  way  to  Corchiano  "),  with  the  lost  town  of 
Fescetinium,  mentioned  by  Dionysius  and  Virgil,  and  cele- 
brated in  the  history  of  Latin  poetry  for  the  nuptial  songs 
called  Carmina  Fescennina,  to  which,  according  to  Festus, 
it  gave  its  name. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  CIMINIAN  HILLS— NEPI,  SUTRI,  AND 
CAPRAROLA. 

(These  most  interesting  places  may  be  visited  from  Civita  Castellana, 
taking  the  railway  to  Borghetto.  Here  a  carriage  may  be  engaged  for 
the  whole  excursion  at  about  20  francs  a  day.  Or  Ronciglione,  where  the 
Aquila  Nera  is  a  humble  but  tolerable  inn,  may  be  reached  by  diligence 
from  Rome,  and  excursions  made  from  thence.  If  a  carriage  be  taken 
from  Rome  to  Ronciglione,  Nepi  and  Sutri — a  few  miles  oif  the  road 
in  opposite  directions — may  be  visited  on  the  way.  Caprarola  is  three 
miles  beyond  Ronciglione. ) 

IT  is  a  delightful  drive  of  about  an  hour  and  a  half  through 
the  forest  from  Civita  Castellana  to  Nepi.  The  road 
passes  near  the  castle  and  Benedictine  church  of  Sanf  Elia^ 
the  latter  a  very  curious  early  Christian  building,  covered  in- 
ternally with  frescoes  by  the  brothers  Johannes  and  Stephanus 
and  their  nephew  Nicolaus  of  Rome. 

"The  exact  period  in  which  these  artiots  executed  the  decorations  of 
S.  Elia  cannot  be  ascertained  ;  but  they  were  men  who  combined  the 
imitation  of  forms  and  compositions  characteristic  of  various  ages  of 
Roman  art,  with  a  technical  execution  which  can  only  be  traced  as  far 
back  as  the  tenth  century.  Their  work,  though  it  has  suffered  from  the 
ravages  of  time,  illustrates  a  phase  hitherto  comparatively  unknown. 
They  seem  to  have  been  men  accustomed  to  mosaics,  for  they  mapped  out 
their  colours  so  as  to  resemble  that  species  of  work.  They  used,  not 
the  thin  water-colour  of  the  early  catacomb  painters  at  Rome  or  Naples, 
but  the  body-colour  of  the  later  artists,  who  painted  of  the  chapel  of  S. 
Cecilia  in  S.  Calisto  and  the  figures  of  Curtius  and  Desiderius  in  the 


SA.Vr  ELIA.  57 

catacomb  of  S.  Januarius.  On  a  rough  surface  of  plaster  they  laid  in 
the  flesh  tones  of  a  uniform  yellowish  colour,  above  which  coarse  dark 
outlines  marked  the  forms,  red  tones  the  half-tints,  and  blue  the 
shadows.  The  lights  and  darks  were  stippled  on  with  white  or  black 
streaks,  and  a  ruddy  touch  on  the  cheeks  seemed  intended  to  mark  the 
robust  health  of  the  personage  depicted.  The  hair  and  draperies  were 
treated  in  tlie  same  manner.  They  were  painted  of  an  even  general 
tone  streaked  with  black  or  white  lines  to  indicate  curls,  folds,  light  and 
shadow.  The  result  was  a  series  of  flat  unrelieved  figures,  which  were, 
in  addition,  without  the  charm  of  good  drawing  or  expression. 

"  In  the  semidome  of  the  apsis,  the  Saviour  was  represented  standing 
with  his  right  arm  extended,  and  in  his  left  hand  holding  a  scroll.  On 
his  right  S.  Paul  in  a  similar  attitude  was  separated  from  S.  Elias  by  a 
palm  on  which  the  phoenix  symbolized  Eternity.  S.  Elias,  in  a  warrior's 
dress,  pointed  with  his  left  hand  to  S.  Paul.  To  the  Saviour's  left  S. 
Peter,  whose  form  is  now  but  dimly  visible,  and  probably  another  saint 
were  depicted.  A  back -ground  of  deep  blue,  spotted  with  red  clouds  of 
angular  edges,  relieved  the  figures.  This  was  in  fact  an  apsis  picture 
similar  to  those  in  the  numerous  churches  of  Rome,  and  in  arrangement 
not  unlike  that  of  SS.  Cosmo  e  Damiano.  The  form  of  the  Redeemer 
indeed,  his  head,  of  regular  features,  with  a  nose  a  little  depressed  and 
the  flesh  curiously  wrinkled,  his  high  forehead,  and  long  black  hair  fall- 
ing in  locks,  his  double-pointed,  beard,  tunic,  mantle  and  sandals,  had 
a  general  likeness  with  those  of  SS.  Cosmo  ed  Damiano.  The  saints, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  their  slender  forms,  S.  Elias  with  his  small  head 
and  long  body,  were  reminiscent  of  later  mosaics,  whilst  their  attitude, 
and  movement,  their  draperies,  depicted  with  lines,  their  defective  feet 
and  hands,  were  not  unlike  those  of  SS.  Nereo  ed  Achilleo.  The  Neo- 
Greek  influence  might  be  traced  in  other  parts  of  the  paintings  of  S.  Elia. 
Beneath  the  green  foreground,  where  the  four  rivers  gushed  from  under 
the  feet  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  Lamb  stood  pouring  its  blood  into  a 
chalice,  an  ornament  separated  the  paintings  of  the  semidome  from 
those  in  the  lower  courses  of  the  apsis.  In  the  uppermost  of  these, 
Jerusalem,  and  in  the  intervals  of  three  windows,  twelve  sheep  in  triple 
groups,  between  palms,  were  depicted.  Bethlehem,  no  doubt,  closed 
the  arrangement  on  the  right,  but  is  now  gone.  In  the  next  lower 
course,  the  Saviour  sat  enthroned  between  two  angels  and  six  female 
saints,  amongst  which  S .  Catherine  in  a  rich  costume  and  diadem  and 
S.  Lucy  may  still  be  recognized.  The  rich  ornaments,  the  round  eyes 
and  oval  faces,  of  these  female  saints,  were  not  without  admixture  of  the 
foreign  element  which  had  left  its  impress  on  Rome  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  centuries.     Still,  the  angels  with  their  hair  bound  in  tufts  and 


58 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


their  flying  ban^s  were  of  regular  features.  The  painters  covered  the 
sides  of  the  tribune  with  three  courses  of  pictures,  fragments  of  which 
remain.  On  the  upper  to  the  right,  the  prophets  with  scrolls,  on  the 
second,  martyrs  with  the  chalice,  on  the  third,  scenes  from  the  Old 
Testament.  On  the  left  the  lowest  course  was  likewise  filled  up  with 
biblical  subjects  taken  from  the  Revelation.  The  aisles  and  nave  were 
also  doubtless  painted,  but  the  pictures  have  unfortunately  disappeared. 
The  painters  inscribed  their  names  as  follows  beneath  the  feet  of  the 
Saviour  in  the  apsis — ^Joh.  FF.  Stefanu  frts  picto  .  .  e  .  .  Romani  et 
Nicholaus  Nepr  Jobs. 

"  The  paintings  of  S.  Elia  are  far  more  instructive  and  interesting  than 
those  of  a  later  date,  and  even  than  the  mosaics  of  the  eleventh  century 
at  Rome." — Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

Nepi  is  the  ancient  Nepete.  Its  position  is  not  higher 
than  that  of  the  surrounding  plain,  but  it  is  cut  off  by  deep 
ravines  Uke  Civita  Castellana.     At  the  entrance  of  the  town 


Castle  of  Nepi. 

the  gorge  is  crossed  by  a  bridge  and  by  a  double  aqueduct 


SUTRL  59 

built  by  Paul  III.  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Below  this  a 
little  rivulet  tumbles  over  the  cliffs  to  a  great  depth.  The 
piazza  has  a  handsome  town-hall,  with  a  large  fountain  and 
a  wide  portico  decorated  with  Roman  altars  and  fragments  of 
sculpture  found  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  cathedral  has 
a  fine  campanile;  its  first  bishop  was  S.  Ronianus,  and 
tradition  ascribes  the  foundation  of  the  see  to  S.  Peter.  At 
the  Roman  entrance  to  the  town  stands  the  most  picturesque 
castle,  with  a  double  gateway.  Outside  this  there  is  a 
charming  spot ;  the  great  machicolated  towers  hang  over  the 
edge  of  the  cliffs,  against  which  rises  an  old  mill,  and,  below, 
a  waterfall  sparkles  and  loses  itself  in  a  mass  of  luxuriant 
evergreens.  Turning  to  the  right  are  some  grand  remains  of 
ancient  Etruscan  wall,  probably  the  same  which  were  scaled 
by  Camillus,  when  he  came  to  avenge  the  desertion  of  the 
city  from  the  Roman  alliance  to  that  of  Etruria. 

Again  a  drive  of  two  hours,  through  woods  of  oaks  and 
deep  lanes  overhung  with  golden  broom,  and  then  along 
the  plain  which  is  bounded  by  the  beautiful  Ciminian  Hills, 
upon  which  Ronciglione  and  Caprarola  gleam  in  the  sun- 
light, and — crossing  the  high  road  from  Rome  to  Siena — we 
reach  Sutri.  The  little  to\vn  is  visible  at  a  great  distance, 
and  occupies  a  crest  in  the  tufa,  filling  every  rocky  pro- 
jection with  its  old  walls  and  houses,  for  its  extent  seems  to 
have  been  limited  by  the  cliffs  which  formed  its  natural  pro- 
tection, and  which  gave  it  such  strength  as  made  it  deserve 
the  name  of  "  the  key  of  Etruria." 

Sutrium  was  made  a  Roman  colony  at  a  very  early  period, 
and  was  celebrated  for  its  devotion  to  Rome.  In  u.  c.  365  it 
was  captured  by  the  Etruscans,  and  the  whole  of  its  inhabit- 
ants were  expelled,  with  nothing  but  the  clothes  they  wore. 


6o  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Camillus  met  them  with  his  army  as  they  were  escaping 
towards  Rome,  and  moved  by  their  anguish,  bade  them  be 
of  good  cheer,  for  he  would  soon  transfer  their  troubles  to 
their  conquerors,  and  this  he  did,  for  that  very  day  he 
reached  the  town,  found  it  undefended,  and  the  Etruscans 
occupied  in  collecting  the  spoil.  Before  night  the  rightful 
inhabitants  were  restored,  and  their  victors  driven  out. 
From  the  rapidity  with  which  his  march  was  effected,  "  ire 
Sutrium  "  became  henceforth  a  proverb  for  doing  anything 
in  a  hurry.  Soon  after  (368)  the  town  was  again  taken  by 
the  Etruscans,  and  again  restored  by  Camillus  :  in  443  the 
old  enemy  once  more  besieged  it,  when  the  consul  Fabius 
came  to  the  rescue. 

As  we  approach  the  town  on  the  Roman  side,  the  rocks 
on  the  left  of  the  road  are  filled  with  tombs.  They  are  cut  in 
the  tufa,  but  many  seem  to  have  been  fronted  with  more 
durable  stone-work.  The  cliffs  are  crested  by  grand  old  ilexes 
which  hang  do\vnwards  in  the  most  luxuriant  masses  of 
foliage,*  unspoilt  by  the  axe.  There  is  no  appearance  of 
anything  more  than  this,  and  it  is  startling,  when  one  turns 
aside  from  the  road  and  crossing  a  strip  of  green  meadow 
passes  through  a  gap  in  the  rocks,  to  find  oneself  sud- 
denly in  a  Roman  Atnphitheatre,  perfect  in  all  its  forms, 
almost  in  all  its  details,  with  corridors,  staircases,  vomi- 
tories, and  twelve  ranges  of  seats  one  above  the  other,  not 
built,  but  hewn  out  of  t^t-  solid  rock,  all  one  with  the  cliffs 
which  outwardly  make  no  sign.  The  Coliseum  is  grander, 
but  scarcely  so  impressive  as  this  vast  ruin  in  its  absolute 
desertion,  where  Nature,  from  which  it  was  taken  by  Art, 
has  once  more  asserted  her  rights,  and  where  the  flowers 
and  the    maiden-hair  fern,  clambering  everywhere  up  the 


SUTRI.  6i 

grey  steps  and  fringing  the  rock  galleries,  and  the  green 
lizards  darting  to  and  fro,  are  the  only  spectators  which 
look  down  upon  the  turfy  arena.  All  around  the  great  ilexes 
girdle  it  in,  with  here  and  there  the  tall  spire  of  a  cypress 
shooting  up  into  the  clear  air.  The  silence  is  almost  awful, 
and  there  is  a  strange  witchery  in  the  solitude  of  this  place, 
which  nothing  leads  up  to,  and  which  bears  such  an  impress 
of  the  greatness  of  those  who  conceived  it,  and  made  it,  and 
once  thronged  the  ranges  of  its  rock-hewn  benches,  now  so 
unspeakably  desolate.  Dennis  considers  that  the  amphi- 
theatre of  Sutri  was  "  perhaps  the  type  of  all  those  celebrated 
structures  raised  by  Imperial  Rome,  even  of  the  Coliseum 
itself.  For  we  have  historical  evidence  that  Rome  derived 
her  theatrical  exhibitions  from  Etruria.  Livy  tells  us  that 
ludi  scenici,  a.  new  thing  for  a  warlike  people,  who  had 
hitherto  only  known  the  games  of  the  circus,  were  intro- 
duced into  Rome  in  the  year  390,  in  order  to  appease  the 
wrath  of  the  gods  for  a  pestilence  then  devastating  the  city, 
and  that  ludio?ies  were  sent  for  from  Etruria,  who  "acted  to 
the  sound  of  the  pipe,  in  the  Etruscan  fashion." 


Siiin. 

Turning  to  the  left,  beyond  the  amphitheatre,  a  path  leads 


62  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

under  the  old  city.  The  tufa,  glowing  from  the  red  and 
golden  colour  with  which  time  has  stained  it,  is  half  rock 
and  half  masonry,  the  natural  cliffs  being  surmounted 
by  ranges  of  Etruscan  walling,  and  the  whole  crested  by 
stately  mediaeval  houses  which  follow  every  crevice  of  the 
natural  formation,  and  occasionally,  where  more  space  is 
required,  are  bracketted  out  from  it  upon  arches. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  narrow  ravine,  the  rocky  barrier 
is  still  fringed  with  ilexes  and  perforated  with  tombs.  A 
little  path  attracted  us  to  the  entrance  of  one  of  these,  just 
beneath  the  villa  and  the  old  clipped  garden  of  the  Mar- 
chese  Savorelli.  Over  the  door  is  inscribed  in  ItaHan  : — 
"  Here  stay  thy  step ;  the  place  is  sacred  to  God,  to  the 
Virgin,  and  to  the  repose  of  the  departed.  Pray  or  pass  on.' 
It  admitted  us  to  one  of  the  most  interesting  places  we  ever 
entered.  Several  tombs  had  apparently  been  thrown  toge- 
ther at  a  very  early  period  of  Christianity,  and  formed  a 
very  long  narrow  Christian  church,  of  which  the  pavement, 
roof,  pillars,  and  seats  were  all  one,  and  all  carved  out  of 
the  living  rock.  From  the  ante-chapel  or  entrance  tomb, 
still  surrounded  with  its  couches  for  the  dead  after  the  man- 
ner of  Etruria,  one  looks  down  an  avenue  of  low  pillars 
green  with  damp,  and  separated  from  the  aisles  by  rock- 
hewn  seats,  to  the  altar,  beyond  which,  from  an  inner  sanc- 
tuary, a  light  streams  in  upon  the  gloom.  On  the  rock 
walls  are  mouldering  frescoes — the  Annunciation,  the  Sa- 
lutation, the  Last  Supper ;  several  saints,  and  a  grand  angel 
with  a  face  raised  in  low  relief.  It  is  a  touching  and  most  un- 
earthly sanctuary,  and  carries  one  back  to  the  earliest  times 
of  Christian  life  and  Christian  suffering  more  forcibly  than 
the  most  celebrated  Roman  catacomb.     The  church  is  now 


SUTRI.  6i 

called,  "La  Madonna  del  Parto,"  and  is  still  much  fre- 
quented. A  poor  woman,  while  we  were  there,  was  kneel- 
in  the  dimness,  so  lost  in  prayer,  that  she  seemed  quite  un- 
conscious of  the  strangers  wandering  about,  though  they 
must  be  rare  enough  at  Sutri.  The  chapel  beyond  the  altar 
had  a  traditional  communication  with  the  Roman  catacombs, 
but  it  has  been  walled  up  now,  in  consequence  of  stories  of 
persons  having  been  lost  there. 

A  ruin  on  the  cliff  near  the  Villa  Savorelli,  is  shown  as  the 
building  in  which  Charlemagne  staid  when  he  was  on  his 
way  to  Rome  in  the  time  of  his  "  great  father  "  Adrian  I.  In 
a  wood  below  is  the  Grotta  d'Orlando,  a  cave  to  which 
the  great  hero  of  chivalrous  romance  is  supposed  to  have 
been  lured  by  the  witcheries  of  a  beautiful  maiden  of 
Sutri  of  whom  he  was  enamoured,  and  where  he  was  shut 
up  by  her.  Another  story  says  that  the  Sutri  maiden  was 
not  the  love  but  the  mother  of  Orlando,  and  that  the 
Paladin  was  bom  here. 

But  tradition  is  wonderfully  alive  at  Sutri.  The  house  of 
Pontius  Pilate  is  shown,  and  to  the  curse  which  he  brought 
upon  his  own  people,  it  is  said  that  the  lawless  nature-  is  due 
for  which  the  natives  of  Sutri  have  ever  since  been  remark- 
able. At  a  corner  of  the  principal  street  is  the  head  of  a 
beast,  be  it  ass  or  sheep,  which  is  believed  always  to  be 
watching  the  hiding-place  of  great  treasure  with  its  stone 
eyes,  but  the  authorities  of  the  town,  who  will  not  search  for 
it  themselves,  have  forbidden  all  other  enterprise  in  that 
direction. 

Some  of  the  old  palaces  have  beautifully-wrought  cressets 
still  projecting  from  their  walls.  In  a  small  piazza  is  a 
grand  sarcophagus,  adorned  with  winged  griffins,  as  a  foun- 


64 


DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 


tain.  The  dirty  Cathedral  has  a  lofty  tower  with  trefoiled 
windows,  and  an  opus-alexandrinum  pavement.  It  contains 
a  portrait  of  Benedict  VII.,  who  was  a  native  of  Sutri,  and 
of  the  canonized  Dominican,  Pius  V.,  who  was  its  bishop 
for  five  years. 

It  is  about  an  hour's  drive  from  Sutri  to  Ronciglione,  re- 
tracing the  road  by  which  we  came  for  some  distance.  Here 
the  little  inn  of  the  Aquila  Nera  is  a  tolerable  resting-place, 
and  though  the  rooms  are  humble,  the  people  are  most  civil 
and  anxious  to  please.  There  is  a  handsome  cathedral  of 
the  last  century,  and  a  large  fountain  in  the  upper  town,  and 
below  the  inn  is  one  of  the  deep  ravines  so  peculiar  and 
apparently  so  necessary  to  Etruscan  cities,  perforated  with 
tombs,  and  with  a  ruined  castle  (La  Rocca)  and  an  old 
church  (La  Providenza)  clinging  to  its  sides. 


La  Providenza  di  Ronciglione. 

It  is  most  pleasant  in  these  old  places  to  have  plenty  ot 
time,  and  no  fixed  plans  to  tie  one  down.  The  walks  in  the 
still  evening  light  along  the  edge  of  these  wonderful  gorges 
are  so  inexpressibly  charming,  and  the  power  of  resting  from 
the  glowing  mid-day  heat  in  the  great  shady  churches.  Even 


LA  GO  DI  VICO.  6S 

in  the  ugly  churches,  much  may  be  derived  either  from 
the  decaying,  neglected  pictures,  often  so  beautiful,  or  from 
the  numerous  inscriptions,  for  in  Italy  almost  everything  is 
handed  down  to  us  about  either  places  or  people,  indelibly 
written  upon  stone.  And  then  it  is  so  pleasant  to  make 
friends  with  the  cordial,  open-handed,  open-hearted  pea- 
santry, who  are  so  pleased  to  be  talked  to,  so  happily 
natured,  so  willing  to  understand  a  joke,  and  so  merry, 
while  so  civil.  And  if  there  is  rather  a  stuffy  sensation  of 
domestic  fog  in  some  of  the  httle  inns,  it  is  atoned  for  by 
the  delicious  morning  afterwards;  and  as  for  the  fleas,  if 
they  only  come  thick  enough  and  go  on  long  enough,  there 
is  a  moment  when  you  almost  try  to  persuade  yourself  that 
you  really  like  them. 

It  is  almost  necessary  to  sleep  at  Ronciglione  in  order  to 
have  a  day  at  Caprarola,  and  what  is  there  for  which  such  a 
day  does  not*  compensate  ?  Caprarola  is  alike  a  climax  of 
nature  and  of  art,  certainly  one  of  the  most  perfectly  glorious 
places  even  of  Italy.  No  view  is  more  singular,  more  his- 
torical, or  more  lovely.  No  royal  palace  in  any  country  of 
Europe  has  such  a  situation,  or  has  the  beauty  of  this  mas- 
terpiece of  Vignola  in  its  solitude,  its  desertion,  and  decay. 

We  leave  Ronciglione  by  the  Viterbo  road,  and  as  soon 
as  we  have  ascended  the  hill  behind  the  town,  come  upon 
the  Lago  di  Vico,  the  Ciminian  lake.  Tradition  tells  that 
when  Hercules  was  here,  the  natives  asked  him  to  give  them 
a  proof  of  his  enormous  strength,  and  that,  to  please  them, 
he  drove  an  iron  bar  deep  into  the  earth ;  but  that  when 
they  bade  him  draw  it  forth  again,  waters  followed,  which 
filled  the  hollow  of  the  mountain  and  formed  the  lake.* 

•  Serv.  JEn.  vii,  697. 


66  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Beneath  its  waves  the  lost  city  of  Succinium  was  believed  to  • 
exist*  Formerly  it  was  surrounded  by  a  forest  which  was 
regarded  as  an  impenetrable  barrier  to  preserve  Etruria 
against  the  attacks  of  the  Romans.  It  was  said  that 
Fabius,  after  his  great  defeat  of  the  Etruscans  at  Sutrium, 
was  the  first  Roman  who  dared  to  enter  the  Ciminian  wood, 
and  the  terror  which  was  excited  when  his  intention  of 
doing  so  became  known  at  Rome,  caused  the  senate  to 
despatch  especial  envoys  to  deter  him.t 


Lago  di  Vico. 

The  Httle  lake  lies,  deep-blue,  in  the  vast  bason  of  an 
extinct  crater.  Part  of  the  hollow  is  taken  up  by  the  water, 
and  the  rest  by  the  wooded  hill  of  Monte  Venere,  which 
looks  as  if  it  had  been  thrown  up  by  the  same  convulsion 
which  hollowed  the  bed  of  the  waters  at  its  foot.  Virgil  was 
here,  and  speaks  of  the  lake  and  its  mountain,  and  as  we 
drive  through  the  adjoining  forests  we  think  of  Macaulay, 
and 

** — the  stags  that  champ  the  boughs 
Of  the  Ciminian  hill." 

•  Amm.  Marcell.  xvii.  7,  13.  f  Livy,  ix.  56  ;  Florus,  i.  17. 


THE  CIMINIAN  HILLS.  67 

It  is  a  long  ascent  after  this ;  and  oh,  what  Italian  scenery, 
quite  unspoilt  by  English,  who  never  come  here  now.  The 
road  is  generally  a  dusty  hollow  in  the  tufa,  which,  as  we  pass, 
is  fringed  with  broom  in  full  flower,  and  all  the  litde  children 
we  meet  have  made  themselves  wreaths  and  gathered  long 
branches  of  it,  and  wave  them  like  golden  sceptres.  Along 
the  brown  ridges  of  thymy  tufa  by  the  wayside,  flocks  of  goats 
are  scrambling,  chiefly  white,  but  a  few  black  and  dun  colour- 
ed creatures  are  mingled  with  them,  mothers  with  their  little 
dancing  elf-like  kids,  and  old  bearded  patriarchs  who  love 
to  clamber  to  the  very  end  of  the  most  inaccessible  places, 
and  to  stand  there  embossed  against  the  clear  sky,  in  tri- 
umphant quietude.  The  handsome  shepherd  dressed  in  white 
linen  lets  them  have  their  own  way,  and  the  great  rough 
white  dogs  only  keep  a  lazy  eye  upon  them  as  they  them- 
selves lie  panting  and  luxuriating  in  the  sunshine.  Deep 
down  below  us,  it  seems  as  if  all  Italy  were  opening  out,  as 
the  mists  roll  stealthily  away,  and  range  after  range  of  deli- 
cate mountain  distance  is  discovered.  Volscian,  Hernican, 
Sabine,  and  Alban  hills,  Soracte — nobly  beautiful — rising  out 
of  the  soft  quiet  lines  of  the  Campagna,  and  the  Tiber 
winding  out  of  the  rich  meadow-lands  into  the  desolate 
wastes,  till  it  is  lost  from  sight  before  it  reaches  where  a 
great  mysterious  dome  rises  solemnly  through  the  mist,  and 
reminds  one  of  the  times  when  years  ago,  in  the  old  happy 
vetturino  days,  we  used  to  stop  the  carriage  on  this  very 
spot,  to  have  our  first  sight  of  S.  Peter's. 

Near  a  little  deserted  chapel,  a  road  branches  off"  on  the 
right,  a  rough  stony  road  enough,  which  soon  descends 
abruptly  through  chestnut  woods,  and  then  through  deep 
clefts  cut  in  the  tufa  and  overhung  by  shrubs  and  flowers, 


68 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


every  winding  a  picture,  till,  in  about  half  an  hour,  we  arrive 
at  Caprarola.  Why  do  not  more  people  come  here  ?  it  is  so 
very  easy.  As  we  emerge  from  our  rocky  way  the  wonder- 
ful position  of  the  place  bursts  upon  us  at  once.  The 
grand,  tremendous  palace  stands  backed  by  chestnut  woods, 
which  fade  into  rocky  hills,  and  it  looks  down  from  a 
high-terraced  platform  upon  the  little  golden-roofed  town 
beneath,  and  then  out  upon  the  whole  glorious  rain- 
bow-tinted view,  in  which,  as  everywhere  we  have  been, 
lion-like  Soracte,  couching  over  the  plain,  is  the  most  con- 
spicuous feature.  The  buildings  are  so  vast  in  themselves, 
and  every  line  so  noble,  every  architectural  idea  so  stupen- 
dous, that  one  is  carried  back  almost  with  awe  to  the  re- 


Caprarola. 

collections  of  the  great-souled  Farnese  who  originated  the 
design,  and  the  grand  architect  who  carried  it  out.  The 
idea  does  not  embrace  only  the  palace  itself,  but  is  carried 
round  the  whole  platform  of  the  hill-side  in  a  series  of  build- 
ings, ending  in  a  huge  convent  and  church,  built  by  Odoardo 
Farnese.     S.  Carlo  Borromeo,  the  great  patron  of  idle  alms- 


CAPRAROLA.  69 

giving,  came  hither  to  see  it  when  it  was  completed,  and  com- 
plained that  so  much,  money  had  not  been  given  to  the  poor 
instead.  "  I  have  let  them  have  it  all  little  by  little,"  said 
Alessandro  Farnese,  "but  I  have  made  them  earn  it  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brows." 

"  Cardinal  Farnese  would  have  everything  in  his  Palace  of  Caprarola 
arranged  after  the  designs  and  invention  of  Jacopo  Barozzi,  the  architect 
Vignola.  Nor  was  the  judgment  of  the  prelate  in  selecting  so  good  an 
architect  less  remarkable  than  his  greatness  of  mind  in  constructing  so 
noble  and  magnificent  an  edifice,  which  is  not  indeed  in  a  position  to  be 
much  enjoyed  by  the  public,  being  in  a  remote  and  solitary  district,  but 
is  nevertheless  admirably  placed  for  one  who  desires  to  escape  for  a 
time  from  the  toils  and  vexations  of  cities. 

"  The  edifice  has  the  form  of  a  pentagon  ;  it  is  divided  into  four  parts, 
exclusive  of  the  principal  front,  wherein  is  the  great  door  ;  behind  which 
is  a  loggia  eighty  palms  long  by  forty  broad,  and  at  one  end  of  the  same 
is  a  spiral  staircase  the  steps  of  which  are. ten  palms  in  width,  while  the 
space  in  the  centre,  which  gives  light  to  the  whole,  is  of  twenty  palms. 
This  spiral  stair  ascends  from  the  ground  to  the  third  or  uppermost 
floor,  it  is  supported  on  double  columns,  and  adorned  with  rich  and 
varied  cornices  :  at  the  lower  end  we  have  the  Doric  Order  which  is 
followed  successively  by  the  Ionic,  Corinthian,  and  Composite,  all 
richly  decorated  with  balustrades,  niches,  and  other  fanciful  ornaments, 
which  render  it  very  graceful  and  beautiful." — Vasari, 

"Vignola's  great  work  is  the  palace  of  Caprarola.  The  plan  is 
unique,  or  nearly  so,  being  a  pentagon,  enclosing  a  circular  court.  Each 
of  the  five  sides  measures  130  feet  on  plan,  and  the  court  is  65  feet  in 
diameter,  while  the  three  stories  are  each  about  30  feet  in  height,  so 
that  its  dimensions  are  very  considerable,  and  certainly  quite  sufficiently 
so  for  palatial  purposes.  The  object  of  adopting  the  form  here  used, 
was  to  give  it  a  fortified  or  castellated  appearance,  as  all  citadels  of  that 
age  were  pentagons,  and  this  palace  is  accordingly  furnished  with  small 
sham  bastions  at  each  angle,  which  are  supposed  to  suggest  that  idea  of  de- 
fensibility.  Above  the  terrace  formed  by  these  bastions  and  their  curtains, 
the  palace  rises  in  two  grand  stories  of  **  Orders,"  the  lower  arcaded  in 
the  centre,  the  upper  including  the  stories  of  windows.  This  last  is 
certainly  a  defect,  but  in  spite  of  this,  the  whole  is  so  well  designed,  the 
angles  are  so  bold,  and  the  details  are  so  elegant,  that  it  is  one  of  the 
finest  palaces  in  Italy,  and  we  may  admire  the  ingenuity  of  the  archi 


70  JDA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

tect  the  more,  because  the  pentagonal  form  is  singularly  unfavourable  to 
architectural  effect  externally,  or  to  commodious  arrangements  inside, 
and  the  site  also  is  such  that  from  most  points  it  looks  too  high  for  its 
other  dimensions.  But  all  these  defects  have  been  overcome  in  a  man- 
ner that  makes  us  regret  that  its  architect  was  not  more  employed  on  the 
great  works  of  his  day." — Fergusson. 

There  is  the  most  overwhelming  sense  of  strength  and 
imperviousness  to  time  in  the  huge  rock-Hke  bastions  upon 
which  the  palace  stands.  As  it  has  five  sides,  from  every 
view  of  it  you  have  an  angle,  and  the  effect  is  very 
singular.  When  you  ascend  the  balustraded  terraces  and 
cross  the  bridge  you  are  admitted  to  an  open  circular  court, 
whence  a  magnificent  staircase,  a  cordonia^  leads  to  the  upper 
chambers,  decorated  by  the  three  brothers  Zuccheri,  by 
Tempesta,  and  Vignola,  with  pictures  chiefly  relating  to  the 
power  and  importance  of  the  Farneses,  uninteresting  perhaps 
elsewhere,  but  here,  where  all  is  suggestive  of  them,  most 
striking  and  curious.  In  the  great  hall  are  a  fountain  and  a 
grotto,  like  those  in  the  Villa  d'Este  at  Tivoli,  yet  roofed  in 
and  not  too  large  in  this  vast  chamber.  96,000  lbs.  of 
lead,  comprising  the  works  of  this  and  many  other  fountains, 
were  sold  in  the  last  century  by  a  dishonest  steward,  who 
also  took  advantage  of  the  constant  absence  of  the  owners 
to  make  away  with  all  the  old  furniture  and  tapestries. 
The  walls  of  the  hall  have  frescoes  of  the  towns  which 
belonged  to  the  Farneses : — Parma,  Piacenza,  Castro,  Vig- 
nola, Scarpellino,  Capo-di-monte,  Canina,  Ronciglione, 
Fabrica,  Isola,  and  Caprarola ;  no  wonder  they  were  rich ! 
The  chapel  has  windows  of  ancient  stained  glass,  and  between 
them  frescoes  of  the  apostles,  with  S.  Gregory,  S.  Stephen, 
and  S.  Laurence.  The  design  of  the  elaborate  ceiling  is 
curiously  repeated  in  the  pavement.     The  next  hall  is  all 


FRESCOES  OF  CAPRAROLA.  71 

Famese  history.  The  marriage  of  Orazio  Farnese  is  repre- 
sented (165a)  with  Diana,  daughter  of  Henry  II.  of  France,* 
and  that  of  Ottavio,  with  a  daughter  of  Charles  V.t  Pietro 
and  Raniero  Farnese  are  made  captains-general  of  the 
Florentines.  Then  Alessandro  and  Ottavio  Farnese  are 
seen  accompanying  Charles  V.  on  a  campaign  against  the 
Lutherans ;  and  the  three  Zuccheri  carrying  a  canopy  over 
Charles  V.,  who  is  riding  with  Francis  I.  on  one  side,  and 
Cardinal  Farnese  on  the  other.  Paul  III.,  who  took  such 
unbounded  care  of  his  family,  is  shown  appointing  Pietro 
Farnese  commander  of  the  Papal  army,  J  and  Orazio 
governor  of  Rome.§  Ranutio  Farnese  is  receiving  the 
golden  rose  from  his  uncle.  And  there  are  many  scenes 
from  the  life  of  the  great  Pope  himself;  how  he  presided  at 
the  Council  of  Trent ;  how  he  made  peace  between  Francis 
I.  and  Charles  V. ;  and  how  Charles  kissed  his  feet  on  his 
return  from  Africa ;  how  he  gave  the  lucky  hat  to  four  cardi- 
nals who  afterwards  all  became  popes.  We  see  one  of  these 
again,  Julius  II.,  when  he  is  receiving  the  city  of  Parma 

♦  In  this  picture,  besides  the  portraits  of  Diana  and  Orazio,  there  are  those  of 
Queen  Catherine  de'  Medici ;  of  Margaret  the  King's  sister ;  of  the  King  of 
Navarre  ;  the  Constable ;  the  Dukes  of  Guise  and  Nemours  ;  the  Prince  de  Cond6, 
Admiral  of  France ;  and  the  younger  Cardinal  of  Lorraine ;  with  those  of  another 
Guise  who  had  not  then  been  made  a  Cardinal ;  of  the  Signor  Piero  Strozzi ;  of 
Madame  de  Montpensier  ;  and  of  Mademoiselle  de  Rohan. 

t  In  the  centre  is  Pope  Paul  III.  The  picture  also  contains  portraits  of  Cardinal 
Farnese  the  younger  ;  Cardinal  di  Carpi ;  the  Duke  Pier  Luigi  ;  Messer  Durante  ; 
Eurialo  da  Cingoli ;  Giovanni  Riccio  of  Montepulciano  ;  the  Bishop  of  Como  ;  the 
Signora  Livia  Colonna  ;  Claudia  Mancina ;  Settimia  ;  and  Donna  Maria  de  Mendoza, 

%  Here  are  portraits  of  the  Pope  ;  Pier  Luigi  Famese  ;  the  Chamberlain  ;  the 
Duke  Ottavio  ;  Orazio,  Cardinal  of  Capua  ;  Simonetta  ;  Jacobaccio  ;  San  Jacopo  ; 
Fcrrara;  the  Signor  Ranuccio  Farnese,  who  was  then  a  youth  ;  Giovio  ;  Molza,  and 
Marcello  Cervini,  who  was  afterwards  Pope  ;  the  Marquis  of  Marignano  ;  the  Signor 
Giovan  Battista  Castaldo ;  Alessandro  Vitelli ;  and  the  Signor  Giovan  Battista  Savelli. 

§  Here  also  are  numerous  portraits,  including  the  Cardinal  Jean  Belley,  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris  ;  with  Visco,  Morone,  Badia  Sfondrato,  Ardinghelli,  and  Christofano 
Madruzio,  the  prince-bishop  of  TreuU 


72  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

from  Ottavio  and  Alessandro,  the  kneeling  nephews  of  his 
predecessor,  and  restoring  it  to  them.  There  is  also  a  por- 
trait of  Henry  II.  of  France, — "  conservator  familise  Fame- 
sise."  All  these  pictures  are  described  at  the  utmost  length 
by  Vasari.  Many  other  rooms  are  very  interesting, — the 
private  study  and  bed-room  of  the  Cardinal  with  his  secret 
staircase  for  escape ;  the  room  covered  with  huge  maps  like 
the  gallery  at  the  Vatican,  and  with  the  wonderful  fresco  of 
the  "  Maura,"  for  which  12,000  scudihave  been  refused;  the 
room  with  the  frescoes  of  the  appearances  of  S.  Michael  the 
Archangel  to  Gregory  the  Great  at  Rome,  and  to  the  shep- 
herds of  Monte  Gargano  ;  and  then  all  the  family  are  repre- 
sented again  and  again,  and  their  attendants,  down  to  the 
dwarfs,  who  are  painted  as  if  they  were  just  coming  in  at 
imaginary  doorways. 

Are  we  really  in  Arcadia,  when  the  old  steward  opens  the 
door  from  the  dark  halls  where  the  Titanic  forms  of  the 
frescoed  figures  loom  upon  us  through  the  gloom,  to  the 
garden  where  brilliant  sunshine  is  lighting  up  long  gi-ass 
walks  between  clipped  hedges,  adding  to  the  splendour  of 
the  flame-coloured  marigolds  upon  the  old  walls,  and  even 
gilding  the  edges  of  the  dark  spires  of  the  cypresses  which 
were  planted  three  hundred  years  ago?  From  the  upper 
terraces  we  enter  an  ancient  wood,  carpetted  with  flowers — 
yellow  orchis,  iris,  lilies,  saxifrage,  cyclamen,  and  Solomon's 
seal.  And  then  we  pause,  for  at  the  end  of  the  avenue  we 
meet  with  a  huge  figure  of  Silence,  with  his  finger  on  his  lips. 
Here  an  artificial  cascade  tumbles  sparkling  down  the  mid- 
dle of  the  hill-side  path,  through  a  succession  of  stone  basons, 
and  between  a  number  of  stone  animals,  who  are  sprinkled 
with  its  spray,  and  so  we  reach  an  upper  garden  before  the 


GARDENS  OF  C A  PR  A  R  OLA.  73 

fairy-like  casino  which  was  also  built  by  Vignola.  Here  the 
turfy  solitudes  are  encircled  with  a  concourse  of  stone 
figures,  in  every  variety  of  attitude,  a  perfect  population. 
Some  are  standing  quietly  gazing  down  upon  us,  others  are 
playing  upon  different  musical  instruments,  others  are 
listening.  Two  Dryads  are  whispering  important  secrets  to 
one  another  in  a  corner ;  one  impertinent  Faun  is  blowing 
his  horn  so  loudly  into  his  companion's  ears,  that  he  stops 
them  with  both  his  hands.  A  nymph  is  about  to  step  down 
from  her  pedestal,  and  will  probably  take  a  bath  as  soon  as 
we  are  gone,  though  certainly  she  need  not  be  shy  about  it, 
as  drapery  is  not  much  the  fashion  in  these  sylvan  gardens. 
Above,  behind  the  Casino,  is  yet  another  water-sparkling 
staircase  guarded  by  a  vast  number  of  huge  lions  and  griffins, 
and  beyond  this  all  is  tangled  wood,  and  rocky  mountain- 
side. How  we  pity  the  poor  King  and  Queen  of  Naples, 
the  actual  possessors,  but  who  can  never  come  here  now. 
The  whole  place  is  like  a  dream  which  you  wish  may  never 
end,  and  as  one  gazes  through  the  stony  crowd  across  the 
green  glades  to  the  rosy-hued  mountains,  one  dreads  the 
return  to  a  world,  where  Fauns  and  Dryads  are  still  sup- 
posed to  be  mythical,  and  which  has  never  known  Caprarola. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

VITERBO  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

ON  descending  the  Ciminian  Hill  towards  Viterbo,  one 
overlooks  the  great  plain  of  Etruria,  once  crowded  with 
populous  cities,  now  deserted  and  desolate.  It  is  a  deeply- 
interesting  historical  view,  second  only  to  that  on  the  other 
side  of  the  hill. 

* '  With  what  pride  must  an  Etruscan  have  regarded  this  scene  two 
thousand  five  hundred  years  since.  The  numerous  cities  in  the  plain 
were  so  many  trophies  of  the  power  and  civiHzation  of  his  nation.  There 
stood  Volsinii,  renowned  for  her  wealth  and  arts,  on  the  shores  of  her 
crater-lake — there  Tuscania  reared  her  towers  in  the  west — there  Vulci 
shone  out  from  the  plain,  and  Cosa  from  the  mountain — and  there 
Tarquinii,  chief  of  all,  asserted  her  metropolitan  supremacy  from  her 
cliff-bound  heights.  Nearer  still,  his  eye  must  have  rested  on  city  after 
city,  some  in  the  plain,  and  others  at  the  foot  of  the  slope  beneath  him  ; 
while  the  mountains  in  the  horizon  must  have  carried  his  thoughts  to  the 
glories  of  Clusium,  Perusia,  Cortona,  Vetulonia,  Volaterrae,  and  other 
cities  of  the  great  Etruscan  Confederation.  How  changed  is  now  the 
scene  !  Save  Tuscania,  which  still  retains  her  site,  all  within  view  are 
now  desolate.  Tarquinii  has  left  scarce  a  vestige  of  her  greatness  on  the 
grass-grown  heights  she  once  occupied  ;  the  very  site  of  Volsinii  is  for- 
gotten ;  silence  has  long  reigned  in  the  crumbling  theatre  of  Ferentum  ; 
the  plough  yearly  furrows  the  bosom  of  Vulci ;  the  fox,  the  owl,  and  the 
bat,  are  the  sole  tenants  of  the  vaults  within  the  ruined  walls  of  Cosa  ; 
and  of  the  rest,  the  greater  part  have  neither  building,  habitant,  nor 
name — ^nothing  but  the  sepulchres  around  them  to  prove  they  ever  had 
an  existence." — Dennis"  "  Cities  of  Etruria.^' 

The  sun  was  setting  as  we  drove  down  the  long  descent 


VITERBO.  75 

of  the  Ciminlan  forest,  and  entered  Viterbo,  and  over  the 
gate  the  great  figure  of  Santa  Rosa  holding  her  crucifix  stood 
out  stern  and  grey  against  the  opal  sky.  Viterbo,  which  the 
old  chroniclers  called  "  the  city  of  beautiful  fountains  and 
beautiful  women,"  is  now  rightly  known  as  "  the  Nuremberg 
of  Italy."  Every  street  is  a  study.  Such  wonderful  old 
houses,  with  sculptured  cornices,  Gothic  windows,  and 
heavy  outside  staircases  resting  on  huge  corbels  !  Such  a 
wealth  of  sparkling  water  playing  around  the  grand  Gothic 
fountains,  and  washing  the  carved  lions  and  other  monsters 
which  adorn  them  !  The  great  piazza  is  so  curious,  where 
the  houses  are  hung  with  stone  shields  of  arms,  where  two 
lions  on  tall  pillars  guard  the  way,  and  where  stands  the 
Palazzo  Publico^  within  whose  court  is  such  a  fine  view  of 
the  city  and  the  hills  beyond.  Here,  round  the  Httle  plat- 
form, are  five  Etruscan  figures  reclining  upon  their  tombs 


At  Viterbo. 


much  like  people  looking  out  of  their  berths  in  a  steamer. 
In  the  palace  above  are  preserved  the  forgeries  by  which 


76  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Fra  Giovanni  Nanni,  commonly  called  Annie  di  Viterbo, 
claimed  for  his  native  city  an  antiquity  greater  than  that  of 
Troy,  and  a  marble  tablet,  inscribed  with  a  pretended  edict 
of  Desiderius,  the  last  of  the  Lombard  kings,  decree'ing  that 
"  within  one  wall  shall  be  included  the  three  towns,  Longula, 
Vetulonia,  and  Terrena,  called  Volturna,  and  that  the  whole 
city  thus  formed  shall  be  called  Etruria  or  Viterbum. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  piazza,  raised  high  against  the 
wall  of  the  church  of  S,  Angela  in  Spata,  is  the  sarcophagus 
tomb  of  the  fair  Galiana,  whose  beauty  made  her  the 
cause  of  a  war  between  Viterbo  and  the-  Romans,  who  only 
consented  to  raise  the  siege  of  her  native  city,  on  condition 
of  her  showing  herself  upon  the  battlements,  and  allowing 
the  besiegers  once  more  to  gaze  upon  her  charms.  Her 
epitaph  says  : — 

"Flos  honor  patriae,  species  pulcherrima  remm, 
Clauditur  hie  tumulo  Galiana  ornata  venusto  ; 
Foemina  signa  polos  conscendere  pulchra  meretur 
Angelicis  manibus  diva  hie  Galiana  tenetur. 
Si  Veneri  non  posse  mori  natura  dedisset, 
Nee  fragili  Galiana  mori  mundo  potuisset. 
Roma  dolet  nimium  ;  tristatur  Thuscia  tota ; 
Gloria  nostra  perit ;  smit  gaudia  euneta  remota ; 
Miles  et  arma  silent,  nimio  perculsa  dolore. 
Organa  jam  fidibus  pereunt  caritura  canoris. 
Anno  milleno  centeno  terque  deceno 
Octonoque  diem  clausit  dilecta  Tonanti." 

"Galianae  Patritiae  Viterbensi, 
Cujus  incomparabilem  pulehritudinem 
Insigni  pudicidse  junctam 
Sat  fuit  vidisse  mortales, 
Consules  majestatis  tantse  foeminae 
Admiratione  hoc  honoris  ac  pietatis 
Monumentum  hieroglyphicum  exsculp.** 
CIDCXXXVIII. 


CATHEDRAL  OF  VITERBO. 


77 


Though  not  so  old  as  the  mendacious  Dominican,  Nanni, 
would  make  out,  there  is  nothing  new,  and  nothing  small,  in 
Viterbo,  whose  very  name,  compounded  of  Vetus  Urbs^ 
would  indicate  its  antiquity.  Every  wall,  every  doorway, 
every  sculpture,  is  vast  of  its  kind,  and  every  design  is  noble. 
Its  ancient  name  would  appear  from  inscriptions  to  have  been 
Surrina.  The  Cathedral  (of  S.  Lorenzo)  stands  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  town,  on  a  rising  ground,  which  was  once  occu- 
pied by  a  temple  of  Hercules,  and  which  was  called 
"Castellum  Herculis"  as  late  as  the  thirteenth  century. 
Near  it  is  a  Bridge  with  Etruscan  foundations  in  blocks  of 
six  courses.     The  cathedral  stands  in  a  kind  of  close,  and  is 


Cathedral  of  Viterbo. 

almost  surrounded  by  different  fragments  of  the  half-de- 
molished Palace  where  the  popes  of  the  thirteenth  century 
resided.  In  the  great  hall  which  still  exists,  met  the  conclaves 
at  which  Urban  IV.  (1261),  Clement  IV.  (1264),  Gregory  X. 
(1271),  John  XXI.  (1276),  Nicholas  III.  (1277),  and  Martin 
IV.  (1277),  were  elected.     The  cardin.'^'i spent  six  months 


78  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

over  the  election  of  the  last  pope,  and  made  Charles  of 
Anjou,  who  was  then  at  Viterbo,  so  impatient,  that  he  took 
away  the  roof  of  their  council-chamber  to  force  them  to 
a  decision,  and  they,  in  a  kind  of  bravado,  dated  theil 
letters  of  that  time  from  "  the  roofless  palace."  This  council- 
hall  is  surrounded  by  memorials  of  all  the  popes  who  were 
natives  of  Viterbo  and  its  surrounding  villages,  or  who  lived 
there.  Adjoining  it  is  another  hall,  still  roofless,  in  which 
Pope  John  XXI.  (Pedro  Juliani— a  Portuguese)  was  killed 
by  the  fall  of  the  ceiling  in  1277.  This  room  is  supported 
by  a  single  pillar,  standing  in  the  open  space  below,  which 
projects  through  the  floor  so  as  to  form  a  fountain. 

"John  XXI.  was  a  man  of  letters,  and  even  of  science  ;  he  had  pub- 
lished some  mathematical  treatises  which  excited  the  astonishment  and 
therefore  the  suspicion  of  his  age.  He  was  a  churchman  of  easy  access, 
conversed  freely  with  humbler  men,  if  men  of  letters,  and  was  therefore 
accused  of  lowering  the  dignity  of  the  pontificate.  He  was  perhaps 
hasty  and  unguarded  in  his  language,  but  he  had  a  more  inexpiable 
fault.  He  had  no  love  for  monks  or  friars :  it  was  supposed  that  he 
meditated  some  severe  coercive  edicts  on  these  brotherhoods.  Hence 
his  death  was  foreshown  by  gloomy  prodigies,  and  held  either  to  be  a 
divine  judgment,  or  a  direct  act  of  the  Evil  One.  John  XXI.  was 
contemplating  with  too  great  pride  a  noble  chamber  which  he  had  built 
in  the  palace  at  Viterbo,  and  burst  out  into  laughter ;  at  that  instant 
the  avenging  roof  came  down  on  his  head.  Two  visions  revealed  to 
different  holy  men  the  Evil  One  hewing  down  the  supports,  and  so  over- 
whelming the  reprobate  pontiff.  He  was  said  by  others  to  have  been^ 
at  the  moment  of  his  death,  in  the  act  of  writing  a  book  full  of  the  most 
deadly  heresies,  or  practising  the  arts  of  magic." — Milmans  Hist,  of 
Latin  Christianity. 

There  is  not  much  to  see  in  the  cathedral,  beyond  a 
beautiful  font,  pictures  of  several  of  the  native  popes,  and 
the  tomb  of  poor  John  XXL  close  to  the  door.  It  is  chiefly 
interesting  to  EngUshmen  from  the  murder  of  Prince  Henry 
D'Almaine,  son  of  Richard  Earl  of  Cornwall  and  nephew  of 


PAPAL  PALACE,   VITERBO.  79 

Henry  III.  He  was  returning  from  the  crusades  with  his 
cousin  Prince  Edward,  and  was  met  here  by  Guy  de  Mont- 
fort,  the  hereditary  enemy  of  his  family,  who  stabbed  him 
while  kneeling  at  the  altar.  The  murderer  was  leaving  the 
church  and  boasting  of  his  vengeance  to  his  followers,  when 
one  of  them  reminded  him  that  his  father,  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort,  had  been  dragged  in  the  dust,  upon  which,  returning  to 
the  altar,  and  seizing  the  lifeless  prince  by  the  hair,  he  drag- 
ged him  into  the  piazza.  The  deed  is  commemorated  by 
Dante,  who  alludes  to  the  fact  that  his  sorrowing  father  ex- 
posed the  heart  of  Prince  Henry  to  public  pity  on  London 
Bridge,  and  who  sees  the  murderer  in  the  seventh  circle  of 
hell,  plunged  in  a  river  of  boiling  blood. 

"  Poco  pill  oltre  il  Centauro  s'affisse 
Sovra  una  gente,  che  fino  alia  gola 
Parea  che  di  quel  bulicame  uscisse. 

Mostrocci  un'  ombra  dall'  un  canto  sola 
Dicendo  :  Colui  fesse  in  grembo  a  Dio 
Lo  cor  che  in  su  '1  Tamigi  ancor  si  cola." 

PurgatoriOj  xii. 

Passing  through  the  detached  Chapel  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  (beyond  the  council-chamber),  which  contains  a 
curious  fresco  portrait  of  our  Saviour,  we  may  emerge  on  a 
terrace  below  the  finest  part  of  the  papal  palace,  a  lofty 
wall  pierced  with  Gothic  windows  and  supported  by  flying 
buttresses. 

Quite  at  the  other  end  of  the  town,  close  to  the  Tuscan  gate, 
stands  the  fine  old  castle  called  La  Rocca,  like  all  the  town- 
castles  in  this  part  ot  Italy.  In  front  of  it  is  a  beautiful  foun- 
tain approached  by  many  steps.  The  neighbouring  Church 
of  S.  Francesco  has  an  outside  pulpit,  whence  S.  Bernardino 
of  Siena  used  to  address  the  people.     It  contains  several 


8o 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


beautiful  thirteenth-century  tombs,  especially  that,  resplen- 
dent with  delicate  sculpture  and  mosaic,  of  Pope  Adrian  V., 


Papal  Palace,  Viterbo. 

who  was  one  of  three  popes  elected  within  three  years  after 
the  death  of  the  holy  and  wise  Gregory  X.  He  was  Ottobuoni 
Fieschi,  nephew  of  Innocent  IV.  He  answered  his  relations 
who  came  to  congratulate  him  on  his  election, — "Would 
that  ye  came  to  a  cardinal  in  good  health  and  not  to  a  dying 
pope."  He  was  not  crowned,  consecrated,  or  even  ordained 
priest,  and  only  lived  long  enough  to  choose  his  name  and 
to  redeem  his  native  Genoa  from  interdict*  On  the 
other  side  of  the  altar  is  another  grand  Gothic  tomb,  that 
of  Cardinal  Landriano  (1445),  with  angels  drawing  a  curtain 
over  his  sleeping  figure.  Opposite,  is  the  solemn  thought- 
inspiring  picture  of  "  the  Solitude  of  the  Virgin,"  by  Sebastian 
del  Fio?nbo, — the  Madonna  watching  the  dead  body  of  Christ 

*  See  Milmatis  Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity,  vol.  v.  94. 


CHURCHES  OF  VITERBC.  81 

through  the  moonlit  night.  It  is  a  grand  subject,  grandly 
carried  out,  and  should  be  seen  in  early  morning,  when  alone 
there  is  sufficient  light  in  the  church  to  illumine  the  barren 
distances  of  the  picture,  and  reveal  figures  otherwise  unseen. 

"The  works  of  Sebastiano  having  been  exalted  to  great,  or  rather 
infinite,  reputation  by  the  praises  lavished  on  theni  by  Michael  Angelo, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  they  were  in  themselves  beautiful  and 
commendable,  there  was  a  certain  Messer,  I  know  not  who,  from 
Viterbo,  who  stood  high  in  favour  with  the  Pope,  and  who  commissioned 
Sebastiano  to  paint  a  dead  Christ,  with  our  Lady  weeping  over  him,  for 
a  certain  chapel  which  he  had  caused  to  be  erected  in  the  Church  of  S. 
Francesco  in  Viterbo  ;  but  although  the  work  was  fmished  with  infinite 
care  and  zeal  by  Sebastiano,  who  executed  a  twilight  landscape  therein, 
yet  the  invention  was  Michael  Angelo's,  and  the  cartoon  was  prepared 
by  his  hand.  The  picture  was  esteemed  a  truly  beautiful  one  by  all 
who  beheld  it,  and  acquired  a  great  increase  of  reputation  for  Sebas- 
tiano."—  Vasari. 

"The  figure  of  Christ,  which- has,  apparently,  been  drawn  from 
nature,  is  nearly  black;  it  is  extended  on  a  white  winding-sheet,  with 
the  shoulders  raised,  and  the  head  drooping  back,  admirably  drawn. 
The  difficulties  of  the  position  are  completely  surmounted.  The  Ma- 
donna, behind,  clasping  her  hands  in  an  agony  of  grief,  strongly  ex- 
presses the  deep,  passionate,  overwhelming  affliction  of  a  mother,  weep- 
ing for  her  child  in  a  despair  that  knows  no  comfort.  This  is  its  charm  ; 
there  is  nothing  ideal,  nothing  beautiful,  nothing  elevated.  She  is 
advanced  in  life  ;  she  is  in  poverty  ;  she  seems  to  belong  to  the  lower 
orders  of  women :  —but,  there  is  nature  in  it,  true  and  unvitiated,  though 
common,  and  perhaps  vulgar — nature,  that  speaks  at  once  to  every 
heart." — Eaton  s  Rome. 

Next  to  S.  Francesco,  the  most  interesting  church  in 
Viterbo  is  that  of  Sta.  Maria  delta  Veritd,  outside  one  of  the 
gates.  The  interior  was  once  painted  all  over  with  frescoes 
of  the  rare  master  Lorenzo  di  Viterbo,  who  spent  twenty-five 
years  upon  the  work,  completing  it  in  1469.  The  church 
was  used  as  a  hospital  during  the  plague,  after  which  it  was 
thought  necessary  to  whitewash  it  all  over,  only  a  greatly- 
revered  figure  of  the  Virgin  and  one  or  two  saints  being  pre- 

VOL.    II.  6 


82  BA  YS  .YEAR  ROME. 

served  in  the  body  of  the  church.  But  the  chapel  of  the 
Virgin  was  uninjured.  It  stands  on  the  right  of  the  nave, 
from  which  it  is  separated  by  a  curious  screen  of  wrought- 
iron,  and  it  is  covered  all  over  with  frescoes  from  the  story 
of  the  Madonna.  In  the  picture  of  the  Nativity,  her  figure, 
kneeling  in  a  long  white  veil,  is  perfectly  lovely.  The 
oblong  fresco  of  the  Sposalizio,  crowded  with  figures,  is  most 
interesting,  not  only  as  a  memorial  of  thirteenth-century  art, 
but  of  all  the  persons  living  in  Viterbo  at  that  time,  as  every 
figure  is  a  portrait.  Few  who  visit  the  church  will  agree 
with  the  following  criticism,  yet  it  is  not  without  interest. 

"The  preservation  of  the  name  of  Lorenzo  is  due  to  the  vanity  of  a 
citizen  of  Viterbo,  Niccola  della  Tuccia,  who  having  compiled  a  book  of 
the  annals  of  his  native  place,  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  insert- 
ing a  passage  in  it  relative  to  himself.  He  describes  how  Nardo  Maz- 
zatosta,  having  caused  a  chapel  in  S.  Maria  della  Verita,  outside  Viterbo, 
to  be  painted  by  Maestro  Lorenzo  di  Pietro  Paolo,  that  artist  took  him 
for  a  model  in  his  fresco  of  the  Presentation  in  the  Temple,  '  on  the 
26th  of  April,  1469. ' 

"  On  the  walls  of  the  chapel  of  Nardo  Mazzatosta,  the  curious  of  our 
day  will  see,  in  a  lunette,  the  Procession  of  Mary  and  her  parents  to  the 
temple,  with  the  Sposalizio  in  a  lower  course  ;  in  a  second  lunette,  a 
Virgin  and  angel  annunciate  with  saints,  and  the  Nativity  below  ;  in  a 
third,  the  Burial  and  Assumption  of  the  Virgin  ;  finally,  in  the  ceiling, 
the  symbols  of  the  evangelists,  prophets,  fathers  of  the  Church,  and  con- 
fessors, the  venerable  Bede  amongst  them. 

"Nothing  can  be  more  clear  than  the  imitation  of  the  manner  and 
conception  of  Piero  della  Francesca  and  Melozzo  in  the  Presentation 
and  Sposalizio.  Lorenzo  not  only  designs  with  the  examples  of  Piero  in 
his  mind,  he  endeavours  also  to  reproduce  his  architecture  and  per- 
spective. In  some  portraits  his  realism  is  not  without  power  ;  but  vul- 
garity and  aflfectation  are  striking.  He  is  not  correct  as  a  draughtsman. 
His  colour  is  cold  and  dull.  His  perspective  is  false,  his  forms  rigid. 
These  features  are,  however,  more  striking  in  the  Nativity  than  in  the 
Annunciation,  which  recalls  Benozzo.  Nor  are  the  reminiscences  of 
that  master  confined  to  one  subject.  They  are  produced  with  equal 
force  in  the  ceiling,  in  which  a  head  like  that  of  the  venerable  Bede 
seems  a  caricature  of  the  Florentine  in  tricky  tone  as  well  as  in  features 


SANTA  ROSA.  83 

"  The  initials  of  Lorenzo,  and  the  date  1469,  confirm  the  annals  of 
Niccola  della  Tuccia,  but  Lorenzo  was  busy  in  other  parts  of  S.  M.  della 
Verita,  besides  the  chapel  of  Nardo  Mazzatosta  ;  and  an  Annunciation, 
a  Marriage  of  S.  Catherine,  and  a  Madonna  giving  suck  to  the  infant 
Saviour,  all  of  them  completed  before  1455,  betray  the  same  rude  hand, 
and  the  influence  of  Gozzoli." — Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

In  the  Chiesa  degli  Osservanti  del  Paradiso  is  a  replica  by 
Sebastian  del  Piombo  of  his  famous  "  flagellation "  in  the 
church  of  S.  Pietro  in  Montorio  at  Rome.  Here  also  is  a 
Nativity,  attributed  to  Finturicchio,  but  "  the  style  is  that  of 
Spagna's  pupils,  such  as  Jacopo  da  Norcia,  or  the  Perugian 
Orlandi  who  was  assistant  to  Sinibaldo  Ibi."  *  A  lunette 
on  the  outside  of  the  church,  representing  the  Virgin  and 
Child  between  S,  Jerome  and  S.  Francis,  has  been  attri- 
buted, without  reason,  to  Leonardo  da  Vinci — it  is  more  pro- 
bably the  work  of  Lo  Spagna. 

No  one  should  stay  at  Viterbo  without  going  to  visit  the 
Church  of  Sta.  Rosa,  to  look  upon  the  incorruptible  patron- 
ess of  the  town.  There  was  no  sign  of  her  when  we  first 
entered  the  church,  where  the  people,  in  loud  voices,  were 
singing  "  Benediction,"  but  the  service  being  over,  we  were 
directed  to  ring  a  bell,  when  a  wooden  screen  drew  up, 
and  a  nun  appeared  behind  a  grille,  pointing  to  a  blackened 
mummy  by  her  side,  in  a  golden  shrine  and  crowned  with 
roses.  The  dead  face  still  wears  a  calm,  rather  touching, 
expression.  A  number  of  country  people  had  flocked  to  the 
grille  with  us,  most  of  whom  knelt.  We  all  received  from 
the  nun  a  gift  of  a  small  piece  of  knotted  cord — "  Dis- 
ciplina" — which  had  been  laid  upon  the  holy  body,  and 
roses  were  given  to  those  especially  favoured. 

Santa  Rosa  was  not  a  professed  nun,  but  a  member  of  the 

*  Crow€  and  Cavalcaselle,  iii.  297. 


84  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Third  Order  of  S.  Francis.  In  the  thirteenth  century  she 
was  as  conspicuous  for  her  eloquence  as  for  her  charity,  and 
for  the  extraordinary  moral  influence  she  exercised  over  the 
people  of  Viterbo.  She  obtained  her  position  as  patroness 
of  the  city  rather  through  politics  than  piety.  By  her  fiery 
addresses  she  excited  her  fellow-citizens  to  rise  against 
Frederic  II.  of  Germany.  They  were  defeated,  and  she  was 
driven  into  exile,  but  lived  to  return  triumphantly  when  the 
Emperor  died,  and  after  her  death  (May  8,  1261)  she  was 
canonized  by  the  Pope  she  had  served,  and  invoked  by  the 
party  she  had  advocated. 

**We  paid  a  visit,  at  her  own  convent,  to  Santa  Rosa,  a  very  sur- 
prising woman.  *  Cowards  die  many  times  before  their  death,'  but  this 
saint  has  died  once  since  hers. 

'•  She  originally  died,  it  seems,  in  the  thirteenth  century ;  but  after 
lying  dead  a  few  hundred  years,  she  came  to  life  one  night  when  her 
chapel  was  on  fire,  got  up  and  rang  the  bell  to  give  notice  of  it,  and 
then  quietly  laid  down  and  died  again,  without  anybody  knowing  anything 
of  the  matter.  The  chapel,  however,  was  burnt  down,  though  she  had  got 
out  of  her  grave  and  rung  the  bell  to  prevent  it ;  all  her  fine  clothes,  too, 
were  burned  off  her  back,  and  her  very  ring  was  melted  on  her  finger  ; 
but  she  remained  uncoasumed,  though  her  face  and  hands  are  as  black 
as  a  negro's.  However,  they  say  she  was  very  fair  four  hundred  years 
ago,  before  she  was  singed,  and  that  she  never  was  embalmed  even  after 
her  first  death,  but  was  preserved  solely  in  the  odour  of  sanctity.  This 
remarkable  saint  began,  with  praiseworthy  industry,  to  work  miracles  as 
soon  as  she  was  born,  by  raising  a  child  from  the  dead,  while  she  was 
yet  a  baby  herself ;  and  miracles  she  still  continues  to  perform  every  day 
— as  the  nun  who  exhibited  her  informed  me.  On  inquiring  what  kind 
of  miracles  they  were,  I  was  informed  that  she  cures  all  sorts  of  diseases, 
heals  sores,  and  even  re-establishes  some  lame  legs  ;  but  she  does  not,  by 
any  means,  always  choose  to  do  it,  thinking  it  proper  that  the  infirmities 
of  many  should  continue.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  nun,  who  related 
her  history  to  me,  really  and  truly  believes  in  it  all.  She  knelt  before 
the  saint  in  silent  devotion  first,  and  then  gave  me  a  bit  of  cord,  the  use 
of  which  perplexed  me  much  ;  and  while  I  was  turning  it  round  and 
round  in  my  fingers,  and  wondering  what  she  expected  me  to  do  with  it, 


S.    CATERINA,  VITERBO.  85 

a  troop  of  dirty  beggars  burst  into  the  church,  together  with  some  better 
dressed,  but  scarcely  less  dirty  people  ;  and  the  whole  company,  having 
adored  the  saint,  received  from  the  nun,  every  one,  bits  of  cord  like 
mine.  I  inquired  the  use  of  them,  and  was  told  they  had  been  round 
the  body  of  the  saint,  where  they  had  acquired  such  virtues,  that,  tied 
round  any  other  body,  they  would  save  it  from  'molte  disgrazie.'" — 
Eatori's  Rome. 

Another  convent,  S.  Caterina,  is  interesting  from  its  con- 
nection with  the  beautiful  Vittoria  Colonna,  Marchioness  of 
Pescara,  who  retired  here  in  1541,  prompted  by  the  wish  of 
greater  abstraction  and  retirement  from  worldly  life.  Here 
she  held  her  principal  residence  till  the  last  year  of  her  life 
(1546),  taking  part  in  the  education  of  the  younger  nuns. 
Of  the  sonnets  which  she  composed  here,  one  may  be  given 
as  a  specimen,  and  especially  as  showing  her  spirit  of  con- 
stant preparation  for  death. 

"  Would  that  a  voice  impressive  might  repeat, 
In  holiest  accents  to  my  inmost  soul, 
The  name  of  Jesus";  and  my  words  and  works 
Attest  true  faith  in  Him,  and  ardent  hope  ; 
The  soul  elect,  which  feels  within  itself 
The  seeds  divine  of  this  celestial  love. 
Hears,  sees,  attends  on  Jesus  ;  Grace  from  Him 
Illumes,  expands,  fires,  purifies  the  mind  ; 
The  habit  bright  of  thus  invoking  Him, 
Exalts  our  nature  so,  that  it  appeals 
Daily  to  Him  for  its  immortal  food. 
In  the  last  conflict  with  our  ancient  foe. 
So  dire  to  Nature,  armed  with  Faith  alone. 
The  heart,  from  usage  long,  on  Him  will  call." 

Translation  by  y.  S.  Harford. 

The  streets  of  Viterbo  are  full  of  old  palaces.  Just  above 
the  pleasant  little  hotel  of  La  Americana,  is  that  which  was 
built  by  Paul  III.  for  his  Legate.  The  old  Palazzo  Chigi 
is  very  curious.  The  loggia  is  covered  with  frescoes. 
Several  of  the  chimney-pieces  are  magnificent,  sculptured 


86  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

with  lilies  in  low  relief.  Some  of  the  tapestry,  with  a  beauti- 
ful frieze  of  "  putti,"  is  interesting  as  representing  all  the 
fashionable  amusements  of  its  time.  The  tall  tower  is  now 
so  ruinous,  that  its  ascent,  by  a  series  of  ladders,  is  almost 
dangerous,  but  it  has  a  splendid  view.  It  is  a  resting-place 
for  innumerable  pigeons,  who  do  not  belong  to  the  inmates, 
but  are  allowed  a  home  here  and  provide  for  themselves. 

The  Palazzo  San  Martino,  which  Murray  would  lead 
peqple  to  look  for  in  Viterbo,  is  in  reality  four  miles  distant, 
on  the  declivity  of  the  Ciminian  Hills,  whence  there  is  a 
splendid  view.  It  is  well  worth  visiting  on  account  of  its 
connection  with  Olympia  PamfiU,  the  famous  "papessa," 
sister-in-law  of  Innocent  X.  She  was  born  at  Viterbo  in 
1594,  of  the  noble  but  ruined  family  of  the  Maidalchini,  and 
was  destined  by  her  parents  for  a  convent,  but  insisted  upon 
marrying  a  Count  Pamfili,  nineteen  years  older  than  herself. 
The  attraction  to  this  alliance  was  the  fact  that  her  husband 
had  a  brother,  over  whom  she  obtained  unbounded  ascend- 
ancy, and  who  rose  under  her  guidance  to  obtain  a  cardinal's 
hat  in  1629,  and  the  papal  tiara  in  1644.  Her  husband 
being  then  dead.  Donna  Olympia  took  up  her  residence  at 
the  Vatican,  and  employed  the  eleven  years  of  her  brother- 
in-law's  life  in  the  sale  of  benefices,  appointments,  and  offices 
of  every  description,  for  which  she  did  not  hesitate  to  drive 
the  hardest  bargains  possible. 

**  Olympia  established  herself  in  the  Vatican  as  its  mistress  !  No 
step  of  domestic  government  or  foreign  policy  decided  on,  no  grace, 
favour,  or  promotion  accorded,  no  punishment  inflicted,  was  the 
pontiff's  own  work.  His  invaluable  sister-in-law  did  all.  He  was 
absolutely  a  puppet  in  her  hands.  The  keys  of  S.  Peter  were  strung  to 
her  girdle ;  and  the  only  function  in  which  she  probably  never  inter- 
fered, was  blessing  the  people. 

* '  One  day  a  large  medal  was  conveyed  into  the  Pope's  hands,  on  the 


PALAZZO  SAN  MARTINO.  87 

obverse  of  which  was  represented  Olympia,  with  the  pontifical  tiara  on 
her  head,  and  the  keys  in  her  hand :  while  the  reverse  showed  Innocent 
in  a  coif,  with  a  spindle  and  distaff  in  his  hands.  Another  day  a  report 
was  brought  to  him  from  England  that  a  play  had  been  represented 
before  Cromwell,  called  *  The  Marriage  of  the  Pope  ; '  in  which  Donna 
Olympia  is  represented  rejecting  his  addresses  on  account  of  his  extreme 
ugliness,  till,  having  in  vain  offered  her  one  of  the  keys  to  induce  her  to 
consent,  he  attains  his  object  at  the  cost  of  both  of  them.  The  Emperor 
again  had  said  to  the  Papal  Nuncio,  *  Your  Pope,  my  Lord,  has  an  easy 
time  of  it,  with  Madame  Olympia  to  put  him  to  sleep. ' " —  T.  A.  Trollope. 

Innocent  X.  died  Jan.  7th,  1655,  by  which  time  Olympia 
had  amassed,  besides  vast  estates,  and  an  immense  amount 
of  uncoined  gold  and  precious  stones,  more  than  two  mil- 
lions of  golden  crowns.  The  succeeding  Pope,  Alexander 
VII.,  demanded  from  her  an  account  of  the  State  monies 
which  had  passed  through  her  hands,  and  restitution  of  the 
valuables  she  had  taken  away  from  the  Vatican ;  but  this 
was  never  carried  out,  the  pestilence  which  appeared  in 
Italy  drew  away  the  attention  of  every  one,  Olympia  herself 
was  among  its  first  victims,  and  her  son  Camillo,  who  had 
been  allowed  to  resign  his  cardinal's  hat  and  released  from 
his  Orders  by  Innocent,  and  married  to  the  rich  Princess 
Rosano,  succeeded  to  all  her  treasures,  and  founded  the 
great  family  of  the  Pamfili-Doria.  Many  relics  of  their 
wicked  ancestress  are  still  preserved  in  the  palace  of  the 
Dorias  at  San  Martino,  especially  her  portrait,  and  her  bed 
with  its  leather  hangings. 

There  is  another  even  more  interesting  palace  in  this 
neighbourhood,  that  of  Duke  Lante  at  Bagnaja.  It  is  the 
perfect  ideal  of  a  Roman  villa.  We  leave  Viterbo  by  the 
Porta  Romana,  close  to  La  Rocca,  outside  which  there  is  a 
public  garden,  crowded  towards  evening,  like  the  Pincio, 
with  gaily-dressed  ladies  and  cavalry-officers  in  their  smart 
tightly-fitting  uniforms. 


88 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


A  straight  road,  a  mile  in  length,  leads  from  the  gate  to  the 
famous  sanctuary  of  La  Querela.  In  the  square  before  it  two 
ancient  fairs  are  held,  which  are  of  great  antiquity,  the  first 
founded  in  1240  by  Frederick  II.,  beginning  on  the  22nd  of 
September,  and  ending  on  the  6th  of  October ;  the  second, 
founded  in  15 13  by  Leo  X.,  beginning  at  Pentecost,  and 
lasting  for  the  fifteen  days  following.  The  front  of  the  great 
church  of  La  Madonna  della  Qtiercia,  and  its  stately  tower, 
are  splendid  works  of  Bramante.  Over  the  central  door  is 
a  fine  representation  of  the  Madonna  surrounded  by  angels, 
and  over  the  side  doors  S.  Joseph  and  S.  Stephen,  S. 
Dominic  and  S.  Peter  Martyr,  by  Luca  della  Robbia.  The 
monks  of  the  adjoining  convent  are  devoted  to  education, 
and  when  we  visited  the  church  its  vast  aisles  were  peopled 
with  large  groups  of  children,  which  the  friars  in  their  white 
robes  were  teaching.     The  ceiling  is  gilt  and  very  magni- 


The  Well  of  l,a  Quercia. 

ficent,  like  that  of  Santa  Maria  Maggiore.     Behind  the  altar, 


LA  QUERCIA.  89 

in  a  kind  of  recess,  is  preserved  the  famous  relic,  the 
Madonna  which  miraculously  grew  out  of  an  oak  on  that 
spot.  The  branch  of  the  tree  is  preserved  as  evidence ! 
But  the  great  charm  of  the  place  is  its  glorious  Gothic 
cloister  and  fountain,  with  the  inscription,  "He  who  drinketh 
of  this  water  shall  thirst  again,  but  he  who  drinketh  of  the 
water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  never  thirst."  It  was  in 
this  church  that  the  Pfere  Lacordaire  and  the  P^re  Requedat 
made  their  profession.  Alexandrine  de  la  Ferronays  thus 
describes  the  scene  to  M.  de  Montalembert : — 

'*  Les  cloches  sonnaient,  I'orgue  jouait  triomphant  dans  cette  belle 
eglise.  .  .  Je  melais  mis  a  genoux,  baissant  la  tete.  En  la  relevant, 
je  vols  pres  de  moi  deux  dominicains  etendus  la  face  centre  terra  : 
c'etaient  les  freres  Lacordaire  et  Requedat.  lis  se  sont  bientot  releves 
et  ont  ecoute,  assis,  le  discours  que  leur  a  fait  celui  qui  ce  jour-li  occu- 
pait  la  place  du  superieur.  Ce  discours  a  ete  excellent.  II  leur  a  parle 
de  ce  que  devait  etre  leur  vie,  obeissante  et  mortifiee  ;  de  tous  les  differ- 
ents  pays  de  la  terre  ou  ils  pouvaient  etre  appeles  a  aller  ;  de  ce  qu'ils  ne 
devaient  rien  s'attribuer, — ce  qui  ne  voulait  pas  dire  qu'ils  dussent  ignorer 
les  talents  qu'ils  possedaient,  lorsqu'ils  en  avaient,  mais  que,  s'ils  mour- 
raient  martyrs  avant  d'avoir  pu  faire  autre  chose,  rien  ne  serait  mieux — 
A  ce  mot,  Pauline  a  vu  un  sourire  de  beatitude  sur  la  figure  de  M. 
Requedat.  Puis  ils  ont  fait  profession  entre  les  mains  du  superieur,  qui 
les  a  tres-tendrement  embrasses.  Tout  a  ete  bien  vite  fini,  et  on  nous 
a  menes  voir  la  madone  miraculeuse  conservee  dans  le  chene." — Ricit 
(Tune  Sceur. 

Two  miles  further,  a  tall  tower  and  a  quaint  castle  guard- 
ing a  little  village  announces  Bagnaja.  The  castle  was  the 
old  residence  of  the  Lante  family,  and  though  neglected  now 
and  let  out  to  poor  families,  it  still  retains  much  that  is 
interesting  in  the  interior.  A  steep  street  leads  up  to  the 
iron  gate  of  the  later  villa,  which  admits  one  to  a  glorious 
garden,  designed  by  Vignola  at  the  same  time  with  the  villa 
itself.     It  is  a  perfect  paradise.     In  the  centre  of  the  clipped 


90  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

box-walks  is  a  large  fountain  with  most  beautiful  Florentine 
figures — and  beyond  it  a  silvery  cascade  glitters  and  dances 
down  through  the  green  depths  from  a  series  of  fern-fringed 
grottoes.  On  either  side  stand  the  buildings  of  the  villa,  one 
for  the  family,  the  other  for  the  guests.  They  were  begun 
by  Cardinal  Riario,  and  finished  by  Cardinal  Gambara.  The 
great  hall  has  fine  frescoes  by  the  Zuccheri  brothers,  and  the 
real  comfort  and  elegance  of  the  rooms  attest  the  frequent 
presence  of  the  present  Duchess,  who  is  of  American  birth. 

Beyond  the  villa  the  walks  are  of  indescribable  beauty : 
gigantic  plane-trees ;  terraces,  where  crystal  water  is  ever 
sparkling  through  grey  stone  channels  ;  mossy  grottoes  over- 
hung with  evergreens ;  woods  of  ancient  ilexes,  which  have 
never  known  the  axe,  and  jvhich  cast  the  deepest  shade  in 
the  hottest  summer  weather;  peacocks  strutting  up  and 
down  the  long  avenues  and  spreading  their  tails  to  the  sun ; 
and,  here  and  there,  openings  towards  the  glorious  mountain 
distances  or  the  old  brown  town  in  the  hollow. 

But  the  great  object  of  our  stay  at  Viterbo  was  to  see  the 
Etruscan  remains  in  its  neighbourhood,  to  which  three  hard- 
worked  days  must  be  devoted,  for  distance  and  difficulty 
make  it  utterly  impossible  that  any  traveller  can  ever  have 
visited  Castel  d'Asso,  Norchia,  and  Bieda,  on  the  same  day, 
and  gone  on  to  Ronciglione,  as  is  indicated  in  Murray's 
Handbook.  It  is  best  to  make  head-quarters  at  Viterbo,  as 
we  did,  and  drive  out  each  day,  for  though  Vetralla  is 
nearer  the  scene  of  action  at  the  two  latter  places,  the  inn, 
a  mere  tavern,  is  so  dirty  and  so  perfectly  miserable,  we 
should  not  advise  any  one  to  attempt  it.  Castel  d'Asso  is 
only  five  miles  from  Viterbo,  on  the  edge  of  the  great  plain 
of  Etruria,  but  the  place  is  so  little  visited,  and  the  track 


CASTEL  lyASSO.  91 

across  the  fields  so  constantly  changed,  that  it  is  most  diffi- 
cult to  find.  The  description  in  Murray's  Handbook,  copied 
from  Sir  William  Gell,  is  most  grandiloquent,  saying  that 
"  the  cliffs  of  this  and  the  four  adjoining  valleys  are  excavated 
into  a  continued  series  of  cavern-sepulchres  of  enormous 
size,  resembling  nothing  else  in  Europe,  and  only  to  be  com- 
pared to  the  tombs  of  the  kings  of  Thebes,"  and  that 
"  nothing  can  be  more  grand  or  imposing  than  the  ruined 
fortress  of  Castel  d'Asso  from  all  parts  of  the  valley."  It  is 
perhaps  only  kindly,  however,  to  warn  our  readers  that  the 
highest  of  the  individual  tombs  is  only  about  ten  feet  high, 
their  usual  height  only  six  feet  (though  the  clitf  above  oc- 
casionally rises  to  a  height  of  from  25  to  30  feet,  and  is  now 
and  then  ornamented  with  a  moulding  near  the  top),  so  that 
travellers  may  not  be  deterred  from  visiting  Egypt  by  the 
imputed  resemblance  of  "the  Bibar  el  Melek  of  Etruria." 
While,  as  for  the  fortress,  it  is  a  small  ordinary  campagna 
tower  on  the  edge  of  the  glen,  with  a  few  low,  ruined  walls. 


Etruscan  Tomb,  Castel  d'Asso. 

As  usual,  on  all  subjects  connected  with  Etruria,  the  most 
correct  account  is  that  of  Mrs  Hamilton  Gray,  by  whom 
tliese  valleys  were  first  unlocked  to  the  general  English  public, 
and  who  made  her  way,  hatchet  in  hand,  through  the  brush- 
wood from  one  memorial  to  another,  encountering  and  sur- 


92  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

mounting  difficulties,  and  countless  natural  obstacles,  in  a 
way  which  none  but  those  who  have  followed  in  her  foot- 
steps can  appreciate.  The  place  does  not  present  any  one  of 
the  subHmities  described  in  Murray's  Handbook ;  it  has  not 
any  of  the  natural  advantages  of  scenery  which  render  most 
of  the  Etruscan  sites  so  attractive,  but  it  is  very  curious, 
and  the  careful  antiquarian,  and  real  lover  of  historical 
detail,  will  not  find  it  unworthy  of  a  visit.  Mrs  Gray  con- 
siders Castel  d'Asso  to  have  been  the  site  of  the  Fanum 
Voltumnae,  which  Dennis  places  at  Montefiascone. 

"The  great  interest  of  Castel  d'Asso  arises  from  its  having  been  the 
ancient  Voltumna,  the  grand  gathering  place  of  all  the  Etruscan  tribes, 
where  the  national  councils  were  held  from  the  time  of  their  first 
establishment  in  Central  Italy  ;  frequented  on  every  occasion  by  the 
assembled  nobles  and  their  trains,  by  the  rulers  of  each  separate  state, 
and  by  the  priests  with  all  the  pomp  of  their  gorgeous  and  awful  wor- 
ship. There  the  national  chief,  or  dictator,  was  elected  ;  hence  laws 
were  promulgated,  and  peace  and  war  declared,  not  by  one  state  only, 
but  by  all  Etruria,  collected  for  her  own  internal  government,  or  for  de- 
fence against  her  foes  ;  there  all  those  solemn  councils  were  held  which 
required  the  highest  religious  sanctions,  and  the  univex-sal  national 
consent — a  plan  of  government  under  which  the  nation  increased  and 
flourished  for  six  centuries,  until  about  fifty  years  before  the  building  of 
Rome. 

"  At  the  head  of  the  glen  is  supposed  to  have  stood  the  great  temple  in 
the  precincts  of  which  the  council  assembled,  and  within  which  sacrifices 
were  made  ;  and  in  its  immediate  vicinity  were  the  rocks  dedicated  to 
be  the  sepulchres  of  those  whom  Etruria  honoured  and  mourned — the 
high  captains  of  the  league,  the  high  priests,  the  distinguished  patriots, 
noted  orators,  dreaded  warriors,  or  beloved  and  wise  kings  ;  those,  in 
short,  to  whom  the  whole  nation  gave  a  grateful  burial,  and  for  whom 
they  wept." — Mrs  Hamilton  Gray's  Sepulchres  of  Etruria. 

The  best  time  for  a  visit  to  Castel  d'Asso  is  the  winter ;  in 
the  summer,  the  tombs  (such  is  their  size  !)  are  almost  en- 
tirely concealed  by  the  brushwood.  The  so-called  guides 
at  Viterbo  are  utterly  ignorant,  inefficient,  and  useless. 


CASTEL  D'ASSO.  93 

The  road  to  Castel  d'Asso  descends  into  the  great  plain 

of  Etruria  from  the  Porta  Romana,  and  then  turns  to  the 

left,  at  the  foot  of  the  hills.     It  is  an  excellent  carriage-road 

as  far  as  the  hot  suphureous  baths  of  the  Bulicame^  mentioned 

by  Dante. 

"  Lo  Bulicame  die  sempre  si  scema." 

Inferno^  xii.  179. 

"Tacendo  divenimmo  la  've  spiccia 
Fuor  della  selva  un  picciol  fiumicello, 
Lo  cui  rossore  ancor  mi  raccapriccia. 
Quale  del  Bulicame  esce  '1  ruscello 
Che  parton  poi  tra  lor  le  peccatrici ;  * 
Tal  per  la  rena  giii  sen  giva  quelle." 

/;//!  xiv.  70. 

Soon  after  leaving  the  Baths,  the  road  becomes  the  merest 
track  in  the  wilderness,  but  can  still  be  pursued  in  a  carriage 
with  a  careful  driver.  It  is  necessary  to  take  almost  all 
turns  to  the  left,  and  as  far  as  possible  to  keep  in  sight  the 
tower  of  Castel  d'Asso.  At  length  one  arrives  upon  the  edge 
of  a  very  narrow  side-gorge  just  opposite  the  ruin.  Here 
one  must  leave  the  carriage,  tether  the  horse,  and  fight  one's 
way  through  the  thick  wild  roses  and  honeysuckle  into  the 
main  glen.  Before  we  reach  it,  the  tombs  begin  to  appear 
on  the  right  of  the  way,  and  continue  to  follow  the  face  of 
the  cliffs  into  the  principal  ravine,  though,  perhaps,  small  as 
they  appear,  those  at  the  entrance  of  the  side  glen  are  the 
best  specimens  of  the  whole.  The  face  of  the  cliffs  is  every- 
where smoothed  away  by  art,  leaving  the  decorations  of  the 
sepulchres  in  high  relief.  These  decorations  are  of  Egyptian 
character,  each  tomb-front  being  marked  by  boldly-raised 
mouldings  which  seem  to  denote  the  outline  of  a  door,  the 

*  See  Bussi,  Storia  di  Viterbo. 


94  ^A  y^  NEAR  ROME. 

real  entrance  being  deep  below.  Occasionally  the  mould- 
ings are  engraved  with  inscriptions,  generally  only  the  names 
of  those  within,  but  occasionally  with  the  addition  of  other 
words,  especially  of  Ecasu,  which  is  sometimes  interpreted, 
"  Rest  in  peace,"  sometimes  "  Adieu,"  though,  as  the  learned 
Orioli  of  Bologna  says,  "  we  really  know  nothing  about  it, 
and  our  wisest  plan  is  to  confess  our  ignorance."  There  is 
no  variety  in  the  sculpture.  The  low  opening  at  the  base  of 
the  tombs  admits  to  the  interior,  consisting  generally  of 
two  chambers.  All  the  tombs  have  been  rifled,  but  are 
strewn  with  broken  pottery ;  brass  arms  and  scarabei  have 
been  found  there. 

"  The  doors  of  the  tombs  have  been  engraved  high  up  on  the  rocks 
in  the  Egyptian  form,  that  is,  smaller  at  the  top  than  at  the  bottom,  and 
they  have  a  broken  and  defaced,  but  perfectly  visible,  rock-cornice 
above  them.  These  rock-sepulchres  joined  one  another  in  a  continued 
series  ;  there  w^as  indeed  fully  a  mile  of  them,  thirty  of  vi^hich  we 
counted,  and  the  castle  valley  is  met  by  another  towards  its  centre,  and 
directly  opposite  the  ruin,  in  which  we  saw  sepulchres  in  the  cliffs  on 
both  sides.  They  were  like  a  street,  the  dwellings  of  which  correspond 
to  each  other.  We  found  beneath  each  engraved  door,  if  I  may  use 
such  an  expression,  an  open  one,  six  or  eight  feet  lower,  which  led  into 
the  burial-chamber.  It  would  appear  that  these  cavern  mouths  had 
formerly  been  covered  up  with  earth,  and  that  nothing  remained  above- 
ground  but  the  smooth  face  of  the  rock,  with  its  false  Egyptian  door  and 
narrow  cornice." — Sepulchres  of  Etruria. 

The  difficulties  of  finding  the  way  to  the  sepulchres  of 
Castel  d'Asso  are  not  to  be  compared  to  those  of  reaching 
the  famous  temple-tombs  of  Norchia,  which  is  about  fourteen 
miles  from  Viterbo.  A  carriage  may  be  taken  for  about  2\ 
miles  beyond  the  picturesque  mediaeval  town  of  Vetralla, 
which  stands  finely  on  an  outlying  spur  of  the  Ciminian 
Hills.     Travellers  occasionally  pass  the  night  there,  but  the 


i".  MARIA  IN  FORCASSI.  95 

inn  is  most  miserable,  and  it  is  much  better  to  return  to 
Viterbo  and  to  set  out  again  in  the  early  morning.  The  site 
of  the  Forum  Cassii,  a  station  on  the  Via  Cassia,  is  about  a 
mile  from  Vetralla,  and  is  now  marked  by  the  church  of 
Santa  Maria  i?i  Forcassi,  called  "  Filicassi "  by  the  na- 
tives. 

The  Etruscan  sites  of  Norchia  and  Bieda  are  each  about 
four  miles  from  Vetralla.  The  road  to  Norchia  does  not 
lead  one,  as  Murray  says,  over  "  bare  moors,"  but  through 
a  forest  of  brushwood;  nor  does  the  eye,  when  you  arrive 
there,  "  range  along  the  face  of  the  cliffs  and  trace  a  long 
and  almost  unbroken  line  of  tombs,"  for  though  a  vast 
number  of  tombs  exist,  they  are  at  great  intervals  from  one 
another,  and  exceedingly  difficult  to  discover.  We  had 
taken  the  guide  who  is  generally  recommended  from  Vetralla 
to  direct  us  to  the  temple-tombs,  and  at  first,  when  we  left 
the  carriage,  he  marched  on  so  confidently,  that  we  had  faith 
in  his  knowledge.  After  a  long  hot  walk  we  reached  a  little 
ruined  Romanesque  church,  occupying  the  end  of  a  promon- 
tory between  two  ravines,  and  marking  the  site  of  an  ancient 
village,  called  Orcle  in  the  ninth  century,  a  name  which  has 
been  supposed  to  come  from  Hercules,  who  was  worshipped 
by  the  Etruscans  as  Ercle.  The  church  was  ruined  and  the 
village  pulled  down  at  a  very  early  period,  when  the  place 
was  utterly  deserted  on  account  of  the  malaria,  and  all  the 
inhabitants  removed  to  Vitorchiano.  To  our  dismay  our  so- 
called  guide  began  to  try  to  persuade  us  that  the  ruins  of  the 
church  were  the  famous  Etruscan  monument.  He  had  been 
here  hundreds  of  times,  he  said,  "  this  was  where  all  travel- 
lers staid,  here  they  held  up  their  hands  in  admiration,  here 
they  expatiated  on  the  grandeurs  of  Etruria,  all  around  were 


96  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  scavi,  the  pozzi,  of  that  ancient  people ;  why  were  we 
not  satisfied  ?  " 

Despairing  of  our  "  guide,"  we  engaged  two  contadini  who 
were  at  work  in  a  corn-field  and  set  out  again,  struggling 
through  the  thick  thorns  and  brambles  on  the  hill-side, 
sliding  down  the  almost  perpendicular  banks  of  tufa,  and 
wading  up  to  our  waists  in  the  high  corn  and  grass,  reeking 
with  wet  below  from  late  thunder-storms,  though  the  sun 
was  pouring  down  upon  us  with  full  force,  and  the  whole 
valley  steaming  under  its  influence.  Dismally  enough  for 
ourselves  we  were  so  foolish  as  to  follow  the  only  indica- 
tions which  "  Murray "  gives,  and  which  led  us  in  every 
direction  but  the  right  one.  Each  little  tomb  we  came  upon, 
generally  with  the  same  external  mouldings  as  those  at 
Castel  d'Asso,  our  contadini  persisted  was  the  celebrated 
monument,  while  the  guide  aimlessly  scrambled  about 
amongst  the  bushes,  and  tried  to  mislead  us  by  ecstasies 
over  imaginary  discoveries,  which  often  made  us  clamber 
up  after  him,  to  find  nothing  whatever. 

At  last,  when  we  actually  found,  in  the  valley  to  the  right 
of  the  church,  a  tomb  on  which  two  human  heads  were 
sculptured,  they  would  search  no  further.  The  contadini 
declared  that  we  must  now  have  seen  sufficient  of  these 
freaks  of  nature  {scherzi  della  iiatura)^  for  such  they  per- 
sisted the  sepulchres  to  be,  and  the  guide  now  changed  his 
tone,  and  swore  that  though  the  temple-tomb  had  certainly 
existed, — he  had  forgotten  it  at  first,  but  remembered  it 
now  perfectly — it  had  fallen  down  with  a  piece  of  the 
rock  years  ago,  and  not  a  vestige  of  it  remained.  For 
hours  we  searched,  scrambling  amid  brambles  and  brush- 
wood, tumbling  over  broken  rocks,  making  our  way  over 


B/EDA.  97 

streams  by  almost  invisible  stepping-stones,  till  at  last,  as,^ 
though  we  had  lost  all  faith  in  each  of  our  companions,  we 
had  still  some  lingering  belief  in  the  position  indicated  by- 
cur  guide-books,  we  began  to  think  that  the  tomb  must  have 
perished  as  the  guide  said,  and,  weary  and  disgusted,  we  re- 
traced our  steps  to  Vetralla. 

Several  hours  of  daylight  still  remained,  so  we  left  the 
ladies  of  our  party  to  rest  in  the  carriage  at  Vetralla,  with 
an  old  blind  musician  seated  on  a  chair  by  its  side,  playing 
on  the  mandolin  to  a  song,  each  refrain  of  which  ended  in 
an  invocation  to  "  II  Dio  Cupido,"  to  soften  the  hearts  of 
the  belle  donne,  and  two  of  us  set  off  again  for  Bieda, 
taking  donkeys,  such  donkeys,  who  alternately  kicked,  and 
fought,  and  brayed,  and  ran  away  for  the  whole  four  miles 
which  separate  the  two  villages,  like  so  many  demons. 
Bieda  is  much  more  worth  seeing  than  either  Norchia  or 
Castel  d'Asso ;  and  though  the  Etruscan  remains  are  exag- 
gerated, the  nutural  scenery  of  the  place  is  most  beautiful. 
The  road  is  only  a  stony,  sandy  track  across  rough  uplands, 
with  occasional  steps  in  the  tufa.  After  crossing  a  bridge, 
it  becomes  a  mere  ledge  in  the  face  of  the  precipice,  and 
Bieda  is  seen  hanging,  eyrie-like,  a  nest  of  old  worn  houses 
on  the  edge  of  the  cliff,  which  is  furrowed  beneath  with 
ranges  of  rude  sepulchres,  for  the  most  part  mere  caves  and 
devoid  of  ornament.  Deep  below  a  little  stream  murmurs 
through  the  ravine.  As  the  Etruscan  city  of  Blera^  this 
place  was  of  considerable  importance,  and  though  unap- 
proached  by  any  road,  it  continued  to  be  so  through  the 
middle  ages.  Two  Popes,  Paschal  II.  and  Sabinianus, 
were  natives  of  Blera.  The  town  has  still  an  old  gateway, 
and  there  is  a  beautiful  well  with  the  arms  of  the  great 

VOL.  II.  7 


98 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


extinct  family  of  Anguillara  in  its  little  piazza.  The  church 
was  once  a  cathedral,  and  there  were  fourteen  bishops  of 
Blera  who  also  ruled  over  Civita  Vecchia  and  Toscanella. 
Over  its  west  door  is  a  little  figure  of  the  local  saint,  the 
"  Divus  Viventius,"  who  was  a  native  of  the  place,  where  he 
officiated  first  as  priest  and  then  as  bishop.  His  shrine  is 
in  the  crypt  (now  entered  by  steps  in  front  of  the  altar,  but 
once  approached  by  two  side  staircases),  which  is  supported 


Cathedral  Well,  Bieda. 


by  curious  old  fluted  marble  columns,  apparently  from  a 
pagan  temple.  In  a  side  chapel  is  Annibale  Caracas  fine 
picture  of  the  Flagellation,  displaying  wonderful  power  of 
muscular  drawing.  In  proof  of  the  healthiness  of  Bieda,  the 
tomb  is  shown  of  "  Joannes  Samius,"  who  died  here  in  his 
hundred  and  eighth  year,  having  been  parish-priest  for 
seventy-eight  years.  As  we  came  out  of  the  church,  three  little 
children  were  sitting  in  the  old  Roman  sarcophagus  in  the 
portico,  pretending  it  was  a  boat,  and  a  number  of  country- 
people  were  collected  round  our  donkeys,  curious  to  see  the 
unwonted  strangers,  and  forming  the  most  picturesque  groups 
with  their  bright  costumes.     Several  had  brought  coins  and 


BIEDA.  99 

curiosities  of  different  kinds  dug  up  in  the  neighbourhood, 
in  the  hope  of  selHng  them.  Our  arrival  had  made  such 
a  sensation  that  it  was  declared  to  be  quite  impossible  that 
we  could  leave  without  visiting  the  great  person  of  the  place, 
the  Conte  di  San  Giorgio — the  very  idea  raised  quite  a 
clamour,  and  to  his  palazzo  our  new  friends  accordingly  ac- 
companied us  in  triumph.  We  found  the  young  Count  in 
his  garden,  decorated  with  beautiful  vases  and  amphorce, 
found  in  his  own  scavi^  and  with  all  the  shrubs  clipped  into 
patterns  after  the  fashion  of  this  neighbourhood.  With  the 
purchase  of  the  estates  of  Bieda,  the  family  of  San  Giorgio 
have  acquired  almost  feudal  rights  in  the  place,  but  their 
tenure  obliges  them  to  reside  here  at  least  six  months  of 
every  year,  six  months  of  exile  from  all  civilized  life,  for  it 
was  fifteen  years,  the  Count  said,  since  any  strangers  had 
visited  Bieda.  He  had  occupied  the  time  in  making  a  small 
museum  of  Etruscan  curiosities  found  on  the  property.  Op- 
posite the  Palazzo  S.  Giorgio,  which  is  a  mere  country  villa, 
are  the  remains  of  the  stately  tower  of  the  Anguillaras, 
destroyed  by  the  people  three  hundred  years  ago,  and  its 
lord  murdered,  because  he  insisted  on  an  old  baronial 
right  which  allowed  him  to  forestall  every  bridegroom  on  his 
estates. 

A  steep  path,  a  mere  cleft  in  the  tufa,  leads  from  the  gate 
near  this  tower,  to  a  famous  Etruscan  bridge,  the  "  Ponte  del 
Diavolo,"  built  of  huge  blocks  of  tufa.  The  bridge  is  gone, 
and  only  its  three  arches  remain,  formed  of  huge  stones, 
fastened  together  without  cement.  The  whole  is  now  over- 
grown with  shrubs  and  most  picturesquely  overhung  with 
smilax  and  ivy. 

**The  central  arch  was  a  true  semi-circle  thirty  feet  in  space.     It  has 


loo  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

been  split  throughout  its  entire  length,  probably  by  an  earthquake  ;  the 
blocks,  being  uncemented,  have  been  much  dislocated,  but  few  have 
fallen.  It  is  clear  that  this  split  occurred  at  an  early  period  ;  for  in 
crossing  the  bridge,  passengers  have  been  obliged  to  step  clear  of  the 
gaps,  which  in  some  parts  yawn  from  one  to  two  feet  wide,  and,  by 
treading  in  each  other's  footsteps,  have  worn  holes  far  deeper  than  pious 
knees  have  done  in  the  steps  at  A'  Becket's  shrine,  or  in  the  Santa  Scala 
at  Rome.  They  have  worn  a  hollow  pathway  almost  through  the 
thick  masses  of  rock,  in  some  spots  entirely  through — a  perpendicular 
depth  of  more  than  three  feet." — Dennis'  Cities  of  Etruria. 

The  cliffs  beyond  the  bridge  rise  to  a  great  height,  and  the 
valley  is  exceedingly  beautiful.  The  rock  above  a  cave 
close  to  the  bridge  is  covered  with  bullet-marks,  for  by  old 
feudal  custom,  every  inhabitant  of  Bieda  on  returning  suc- 
cessful from  the  chase,  is  compelled  to  discharge  his  gun 
against  this  rock,  in  order  to  warn  his  lord,  the  Conte  di  San 
Giorgio,  who  then  descends  from  the  height  to  claim  his 
tithe  of  the  boar's  thigh.  Without  returning  into  the  town, 
one  may  follow  a  path  along  the  hollow  where  there  is 
another  old  bridge.  Here,  beneath  the  houses,  the  cliff  is 
perfectly  honey-combed  with  tombs,  many  of  them  used 
now  as  pig-sties  or  cattle-sheds. 

"Here  are  rows  of  tombs,  side  by  side,  hollowed  in  the  cliff,  each 
with  its  gaping  doorway ;  here  they  are  in  terraces,  one  above  the  other, 
united  by  flights  of  steps  carved  out  of  the  rock  ;  here  are  masses  split 
from  the  precipice  above,  and  hewn  into  tombs,  standing  out  like 
isolated  abodes — shaped,  too,  into  the  very  forms  of  houses,  with  slop- 
ing rogfs  culminating  to  an  apex,  overhanging  eaves  at  the  gable,  and  a 
massive  central  beam  to  support  the  rafters.  The  angle  of  the  roof  is 
that  still  usual  in  Italian  buildings — that  angle,  which  being  just  suffi- 
cient  to  carry  off  the  rain,  is  naturally  suggested  in  a  climate  where  snow 
rarely  lies  a  day.  On  entering  any  one  of  the  tombs,  the  resemblance 
is  no  less  striking.  The  broad  beam  carved  in  relief  along  the  ceiling — 
the  rafters,  also  in  relief,  resting  on  it  and  sinking  gently  on  either  side 
— the  inner  chamber  in  many,  lighted  by  a  window  on  each  side  of  the 
door  in  the  partition-wall,  all  three  of  the  same  Egyptian  form — the 


LOST  TOMBS  OF  NORCHIA.  loi 

triclinial  arrangement  of  the  rock-hewn  benches,  as  though  the  dead,  as 
represented  on  their  sarcophagi,  were  wont  to  recUne  at  a  banquet — 
these  things  are  enough  to  convince  one  that  in  their  sepulchres  the 
Etruscans,  in  many  respects,  imitated  their  habitations,  and  sought  to 
make  their  cemeteries  as  far  as  possible  the  counterparts  of  the  cities 
on  the  opposite  heights." — Dennis. 

We  did  not  reach  Viterbo  on  our  return  from  Bieda  till 
9  p.  M.  Very  early  next  morning  we  received  a  visit  from  the 
antiquity  vendor  of  Viterbo,  a  most  grandiloquent  gentle- 
man, who  declared  that  he  had  himself  made  excavations, 
and  was  enthusiastic  as  to  having  lately  discovered  some  fine 
sarcophagi — "mi  sono  detto,  questi  sono  per  I'lnghilterra, 
cosi  gli  ho  destinato,"  He  produced  a  little  bronze  orna- 
ment from  a  chandelier  of  the  seventeenth  century,  an 
amorino,  and  swore  that  it  was  "  Cupido,"  the  ancient  god  of 
the  Etruscans,  upon  whose  image  the  warriors  struck  their 
weapons  when  they  went  to  battle,  and  he  protested  that 
some  scratches  in  the  metal  figure  had  been  left  by  the 
clashing  of  their  swords.  Nevertheless,  as  his  report  of  their 
continued  existence  coincided  with  our  own  opinion,  we  were 
beguiled  into  believing  him  when  he  vowed  that  he  knew 
Norchia  intimately,  and  that  he  had  seen  the  temple-tombs 
hundreds  of  times,  and  so,  tired  as  we  were,  we  actually  order- 
ed the  carriage  again,  and  retraced  the  long  fatiguing  drive  to 
Vetralla,  and  on  to  the  copses  of  Norchia,  taking  him  with  us. 
He  roused  our  hopes  by  leading  us,  after  we  left  the  carriage, 
exactly  in  the  opposite  direction  to  that  in  which  we  had 
been  the  day  before.  After  long  wanderings,  we  reached 
the  bank  of  a  river,  which  we  had  to  wade  through,  and  then 
to  follow  more  valleys  in  the  tufa,  half  choked  up  with  brush- 
wood. He,  and  all  the  natives,  were  fully  convinced  that  we 
had  come  to  Norchia  to  look  for  a  hidden  treasure  of  which 


I02  DA  ys  NEAR  ROME. 

he  fancied  we  had  discovered  the  whereabouts.  "You 
know, — of  course  you  have  read  in  history,"  he  said, 
"  that  the  Etruscans,  when  they  emigrated  to  England,  took 
with  them  documents  (pergamena),  telHng  of  an  immense 
treasure  buried  at  Norchia,  and  at  intervals  ever  since  the 
EngHsh  have  come,  of  course  you  know  it,  to  seek  for  these 
riches."  Hour  after  hour  we  wandered,  vainly  affirming  that 
the  temple-tombs  were  aU  that  we  cared  for,  and  when  at 
length  in  despair  we  insisted  that  we  must  be  near  the  place, 
the  guide  began — "  Oh  si,  Signori,  mi  pare  che  deve  essere 
qui,  o  almeno  deve  essere  qua,"  pointing  in  exactly  opposite 
directions,  and — it  turned  out  that  he  knew  nothing  whatever 
about  it,  had  never  seen  the  temple-tombs  in  .  his  life,  had 
not  the  faintest  idea  what  they  meant,  and  that  all  he  had 
said  was  a  lie.  For  hours  we  searched  fruitlessly,*  sending 
the  so-called  guide  in  other  directions,  till  at  length  in  one 
of  these  excursions  a  shepherd  encountered  "  questa  spia,"  as 
he  called  him,  and  returning  with  him  to  us,  declared  that 
he  really  knew  of  a  "  facciata  sculta "  in  a  distant  valley, 
and  could  find  the  way  to  it.  All  our  hopes  were  renewed 
by  this  intelligence,  our  fatigues  melted  away,  and  we  set  out 
again,  but  it  was  a  long  round  of  six  miles. 

For  the  benefit  of  future  travellers  we  may  say  that  if  they 
turn  to  the  right  across  both  fields  and  woods  from  the 
place  where  the  carriage  has  to  be  left,  they  may  eventually 
arrive  at  the  tombs  ;  but  the  safest  way  would  be  (utterly  dis- 
regarding Murray's  direction  as  to  its  being  at  the  "extremity" 
of  any  valley  at  all),  to  make  straight  for  the  ruined  church, 
beneath  which  a  number  of  valleys  unite.     Looking  hence 

*  We  had  not  Dennis"  Cities  of  Etrurla  with  us,  otherwise  we  might  have  found 
the  tomb  by  his  admirable  plan. 


THE  TEMPLE-TOMBS,  103 

(away  from  the  path  already  traversed),  the  tombs  are 
on  the  further  side  of  the  first  collateral  valley  on  the 
right. 

It  was  a  triumphant  moment,  when,  wearied,  wet,  foot- 
sore, torn  with  brambles,  and  covered  with  mud,  we  first 
came  in  sight  of  the  famous  sepulchres.  A  featureless  glen, 
smaller  than  the  others,  had  opened  from  one  of  the  main 
valleys ;  banks  covered  alternately  with  fragments  of  rock, 
and  shrubs  of  wild  pear  and  cistus,  sloped  up  on  either  side 
to  the  low  ranges  of  tufa  rock  which  separated  it  from  the 
flat  plain  around,  and  here,  on  turning  a  corner,  we  saw  two 
sculptured  Doric  sepulchres,  which  recalled  the  monuments 
of  Petra  in  extreme  miniature.  It  is,  as  it  were,  a  double 
tomb,  with  two  massive  projecting  entablatures,  but  one  en- 
croaches on  the  other  which  is  cut  away  to  receive  it,  so 
that  they  are  evidently  not  of  the  same  date.  Both  are 
much  alike,  and  have  been  covered  with  sculptures  in  the 
boldest  relief.  Half  of  one  of  the  pediments  has  fallen 
down,  but  on  the  tomb  and  a  half  which  remain,  though 
much  worn  by  time,  the  forms  of  warriors  are  distinctly 
visible.  One  figure  seems  to  have  fallen  and  others  are 
fighting  over  him  ;  a  winged  genius  is  also  discernible  ;  and 
there  are  remnants  of  colour  over  the  whole,  the  ground- 
work apparently  red.  The  pediments  end  on  either  side  in 
a  volute,  within  which  is  a  gorgon's  head.  There  are  traces 
of  pillars  having  once  supported  the  heavy  entablatures.  On 
the  mass  of  tufa  below  the  pediments  are  traces  of  more 
figures,  probably  once  painted,  with  the  armour  in  low  re- 
lief. All  archaeologists  are  agreed  that  both  architecture 
and  sculpture  are  imitations  of  the  Greek.  Orioli  attributes 
the  monuments  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  of  Rome.    The 


104  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

interiors  of  the  tombs  are  quite  devoid  of  ornament,  mere 
chambers  hewn  in  the  tufa. 


Temple-Tombs,  Norchia. 

Mutilated  and  ruined  as  they  are,  the  massive  sculptures 
of  the  temple-tombs  will  ever  make  them  one  of  the  most 
interesting  of  Etruscan  remains,  and  in  connection  with 
their  lost  history,  and  their  lost  language,  it  is  impossible  to 
look  upon  them  without  the  deepest  interest.  We,  however, 
were  unable  to  linger  long  on  the  rugged  slopes  before  their 
portals ; — night  was  fast  closing  in,  and  it  was  so  late  before 
we  reached  Viterbo,  that  we  met  people  coming  out  with 
lights  to  look  for  us,  when  we  were  two  miles  from  the  town. 

Eight  miles  from  Vetralla  on  the  Via  Cassia  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Sutri  is  Capranica,  an  Etruscan  site,  but  of  little 
interest. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

MONTEFIASCONE,  BOLSENA,   AND   ORVIETO. 

(Orvieto  is  now  most  easily  reached  from  Rome  by  railway  (in  3f 
hours  )  as  it  has  a  station— at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  the  town  is 
situated— on  the  line  from  Orte  to  Siena.  But  those  who  have  time 
will  not  regret  the  longer  excursion  by  Viterbo  and  Bolsena.  There  is  a 
diligence  to  Viterbo  from  Orte,  and  thence  carriages  may  be  taken  for 
the  rest  of  the  excursion. ) 

IT  is  an  interesting  drive  across  the  great  Etruscan  plain 
from  Viterbo  to  Montefiascone.  On  the  left  of  the  road, 
five  miles  from  Viterbo,  are  the  ruins  called  Le  Casacce  del 
Bacucco,  consisting  of  baths  and  other  buildings  of  imperial 
date.  The  largest  ruin  is  now  popularly  called  La  Lettighetta, 
or  the  warming-pan.  Considerably  to  the  east  of  this, 
stranded  in  the  wide  plain,  are  the  ruins,  still  called  Ferento, 
of  the  Etruscan  city  Ferentinum,  which  Horace  alludes  to, 
when  he  says  : — 

•*Si  te  grata  quies  et  primam  somnus  in  horam 
Delectat ;  si  te  pulvis  strepitusque  rotarum, 
Si  laedit  caupona  j  Ferentinum  ire  jubebo." 

I  Epist.  17. 

From  this  it  appears  to  have  been  a  quiet  country  town, 
but  Suetonius  speaks  of  it  as  the  birth-place  of  the  Emperor 
Olho,  and  Tacitus  as  the  site  of  a  temple  of  Fortune.     It 


io6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

continued  to  exist  in  mediaeval  times,  and  was  the  site  of  an 
episcopal  see,  but  was  utterly  destroyed  in  the  eleventh 
century  by  the  people  of  Viterbo,  because  its  citizens  had 
committed  the  heresy  of  representing  the  figure  of  Christ 
upon  the  cross  with  the  eyes  open  instead  of  shut ! 

In  the  area  of  the  town,  mediaeval  remains  are  mingled 
with  early  Roman  foundations  and  polygonal  blocks  of 
basaltic  pavement.  The  principal  ruin  is  the  Theatre^  which 
is  finely  placed  on  the  edge  of  a  ravine.  It  has  seven  gates, 
and  the  stage-front  is  a  hundred  and  thirty-six  feet  in  length, 
built  of  large  rectangular  volcanic  blocks  without  cement. 

"Ferentum,  though  small,  and  probably  at  no  time  of  political  im- 
portance, was  celebrated  for  the  beauty  of  its  public  monuments. 
Vitruvius  cites  them  as  exhibiting  *  the  infinite  virtues '  of  a  stone  hewn 
from  certain  quarries,  called  'Anitianse,'  in  the  territory  of  Tarquinii, 
and  especially  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Volsinian  Lake.  This  stone, 
he  says,  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Alban  Mount  in  colour,  i.e.,  it  was 
grey  like  peperino ;  it  was  proof  alike  against  the  severity  of  frost 
and  the  action  of  fire,  and  of  extreme  hardness  and  durability,  as  might 
be  seen  from  the  monuments  of  Ferentum,  which  were  made  of  it. 
*  For  there  are  noble  statues  of  wonderful  workmanship,  and  likewise 
figures  of  smaller  size,  together  with  foliage  and  acanthi,  delicately 
carved,  which  albeit  they  be  ancient,  appear  as  fresh  as  if  they  were  but 
just  now  finished.'  The  brass-founders,  he  adds,  find  this  stone  most 
useful  for  moulds.  '  Were  these  quarries  near  the  city,  it  would  be  well 
to  construct  everything  of  this  stone.'  Pliny  speaks  of  this  stone  in  the 
same  laudatory  terms,  but  calls  it  a  white  silex.^^ — Dennis'  Cities  of 
Etruria. 

About  four  miles  east  of  Ferento,  by  a  path  very  difficult 
to  find,  is  Vitorchiano,  a  village  on  an  Etruscan  site,  which 
still  possesses  the  curious  privilege  of  having  the  monopoly 
of  supplying  the  servants  of  the  Roman  senators.  It  is  said 
that  this  was  granted  when  a  native  of  the  place  successfully 
extracted  a  thorn  from  the  foot  of  one  of  the  emperors. 
Every  forty  years  the  principal  families  draw  lots  for  their 


MONTEFIASCONE.  107 

order  of  service,  each  sending  one  of  its  members,  or  selling 
the  privilege  at  a  price  which  is  fixed  by  custom. 

Still  further  east,  12  miles  from  Viterbo,  by  the  direct 
road,  is  Bomarzo.  Two  miles  from  the  modern  village, 
which  has  an  old  castle  of  the  Borghese,  is  the  site  of  an 
Etruscan  town,  supposed  to  be  Moeonia.  There  are  few 
remains  above-ground,  but  several  interesting  tombs.  One, 
with  a  single  pillar  in  its  centre,  is  known  as  the  Grotta  della 
Colonna.  Near  it  is  the  Grotta  Dipinta^  decorated  with 
very  curious  frescoes  of  Dolphins  and  other  monsters,  some 
of  them  with  semi-human  faces.  The  temple-shaped  sarco- 
phagus, adorned  with  snakes,  now  in  the  British  Museum, 
was  found  in  this  tomb. 

As  we  continue  the  road  to  Montefiascone^  the  town  is  ex- 
ceedingly effective  from  a  distance,  cresting  a  hill,  and 
crowned  by  the  handsome  dome  of  a  cathedral,  designed  by 
San  Michele  and  dedicated  to  S.  Margaret.  The  hill, 
always  celebrated  for  its  wine,  probably  derives  thence  its 
TVd.m^^—fiascone  signifying  a  large  flask.  Dennis  considers 
that  it  occupies  either  the  site  of  the  Etruscan  city  CEnarea, 
or  that  of  the  Fanum  Voltumnae,  the  shrine  where  the  princes 
of  Etruria  met  in  council  on  the  affairs  of  the  confederation. 
No  Etruscan  remains  however  exist  except  a  few  caverned 
tombs,  now  turned  into  the  hovels  of  the  miserable  livmg 
inhabitants. 

'*  Well  may  this  height  have  been  chosen  as  the  site  of  the  national 
temple  !  It  commands  a  magnificent  and  truly  Etruscan  panorama. 
The  lake  (of  Bolsena)  shines  beneath  in  all  its  breadth  and  beauty — truly 
meriting  the  title  of  'the  great  lake  of  Italy  ;'  and  though  the  towers  and 
palaces  of  Volsinii  have  long  ceased  to  sparkle  on  its  bosom,  it  still 
mirrors  the  white  cliffs  of  its  twin  islets,  and  the  distant  snow-peaks  of 
Amiata  and  Cetona.     In  every  other  direction  is  one   'intermingled 


Io8  '         DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

pomp  of  vale  and  hill.'  In  the  east  rise  the  dark  mountains  of  Umbria ; 
and  the  long  line  of  mist  at  their  foot  marks  the  course  of  *  the  Etruscan 
stream ' — 

*  The  noble  river 
That  rolls  by  the  towers  of  Rome.' 

The  giant  Apennines  of  Sabina  loom  afar  off,  dim  through  the  hazy 
noon  ;  and  the  nearer  Ciminian,  dark  with  its  once  dread  forests, 
stretches  its  triple-crested  mass  across  the  southern  horizon.  Fertile 
and  populous  was  the  country,  numerous  and  potent  the  cities,  that  lay 
beneath  the  confederate  princes  as  they  sate  here  in  council ;  and  many 
an  eye  in  the  wide  plain  would  turn  hitherward  as  to  the  ark  of  national 
safety.  The  warriors  gathering  at  the  sacred  lake  in  defence  of  their 
children's  homes  and  fathers'  sepulchres,  would  look  to  the  great  god- 
dess for  succour,  the  augur  on  the  distant  arx  of  Tarquinii  or  Cosa, 
would  turn  to  her  shrine  for  a  propitious  omen, — the  husbandman 
would  lift  his  eye  from  the  furrow,  and  invoke  her  blessing  on  his 
labours, — and  the  mariner  on  the  bosom  of  the  far-off  Tyrrhene,  would 
catch  the  white  gleam  of  her  temple,  and  breathe  a  prayer  for  safety  and 
success." — Dennis'  Cities  of  Etruria. 

Outside  the  Roman  gate  of  the  town,  near  the  pleasant 
little  inn  of-  the  Aquila  Nera,  at  which  the  vetturini  halt,  is 
the  principal  sight  of  the  place,  the  wonderful  old  Church  of 
S.  Flaviano,  which  dates  from  the  eleventh  century,  but  was 
restored  by  Urban  IV.  in  1262.  It  is  a  most  curious  build- 
ing, and  highly  picturesque  outside,  with  a  broad  balconied 
loggia  over  a  triple  entrance.  Within,  it  is  quite  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  churches  in  Italy,  by  no  means  "  subter- 
ranean," as  Murray  says,  nor  has  it  even  a  crypt,  but  the 
triforium  is  of  such  breadth,  that  it  almost  forms  a  second 
church,  and  contains  a  second  high-altar,  and  a  bishop's 
throne,  approached  by  staircases  on  either  side  of  the  high- 
altar  which  covers  the  remains  of  S.  Flaviano  in  the  lower 
church.  The  pillars  are  most  extraordinary,  of  enormous 
size,  and  with  magnificent  and  very  curious  capitals  sculp- 
tured with  intricate  patterns.     Some  of  the  side  chapels  are 


S.  FLAVIANO,  MONTEFIASCONE. 


109 


almost  in  ruins.  The  whole  building  was  once  covered  with 
frescoes,  which  are  now  only  visible  where  a  white-wash  coat- 
ing has  been  removed.     In  a  chapel   on  the  left  of  the 


S.  Flaviano,  Montefiascone. 


entrance  they  are  more  perfect,  and  exquisite  specimens  of 
Umbrian  Art.  The  chief  subject  is  the  Massacre  of  the  In- 
nocents ;  a  beautiful  head,  probably  of  the  unknown  artist,  is 
introduced  in  the  frieze.  In  the  centre  of  the  ceiling  is  Our 
Saviour  surrounded  by  Angels. 

An  incised  grave-stone  before  the  high-altar  representing 
a  bishop  with  a  goblet  on  either  side  of  his  head,  is  in- 
teresting as  that  of  Bishop  Johann  Fugger,  one  of  the 
famous  family  who  burnt  the  proofs  of  the  debts  of  Charles 
v.,  and  lived  in  princely  splendour  in  the  old  palace  at 
Augsburg,  now  known  as  the  "  Drei  Mohren."  The  bishop 
loved  good  wine  beyond  everything,  and  travelled  over  all 
distant  lands  in  search  of  it.     He  was  so  afraid  of  the  price 


no  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

rising  on  his  advent,  that  he  sent  on  his  valet  before,  bid- 
ding him  taste  the  wine  at  the  places  he  came  to,  and  if  he 
found  it  good  to  send  back  the  word  "  Est."  The  valet 
came  to  Montefiascone  and  found  the  wine  so  absolutely  en- 
chanting, that  he  wrote  the  sign  three  times — "  Est,  Est,  Est." 
The  bishop  arrived  and  drank  so  much,  that  he  died 
that  night,  desiring  with  his  last  breath,  that  a  barrel  of  wine 
might  annually  be  upset  upon  his  grave,  so  that  his  body 
might  still  sop  in  the  delicious  fluid,  and  bequeathing  a 
large  sum  of  money  to  Montefiascone  on  this  condition. 
The  bishop's  wishes  were  carried  out  annually  till  a  few  years 
ago,  but  the  price  of  the  cask  of  wine  is  now  applied  to 
charities.  On  the  bishop's  grave  is  the  epitaph  placed  by 
the  valet. 

"Est,  Est,  Est 
Propter  nimium  est, 
Joannes  de  Foucris 
Dominus  meus 
Mortuus  est." 

From  the  hill  above  Montefiascone  we  look  down 
over  the  lake  of  Bolsena,  which  we  have  already  made 
acquaintance  with  from  the  top  of  Soracte.  It  is  more  than 
twenty-six  miles  round,  and  encircled  by  low  hills.  Two 
rocky  islets  break  the  expanse  of  water  ;  on  the  larger, 
Bisentina,  is  an  interesting  church  built  by  the  Farnesi  to 
commemorate  the  miraculous  escape  of  Sta.  Christina  from 
drowning  :  in  the  smaller  island,  Mariana,  may  be  seen  the 
staircase  which  led  to  the  bath  where  the  Gothic  Queen 
Amalasontha  was  strangled  by  her  cousin  Theodatus.  The 
lake  is  full  of  fish,  especially  eels  :  Pope  Martin  IV.  died 
from  eating  too  many  of  them  : 


BOLSENA. 


Ill 


**E  quella  faccia 
Di  la  da  lui,  piu  che  le  altre  trapunta, 

Ebbe  la  santa  chiesa  in  le  sue  braccia 
Dal  Torso  fu,  e  purga  per  digiuno 
Le  anguille  di  Bolsena  e  la  vernaccia. 

Purgat.  xxiv. 

"  The  lake  is  surrounded  with  white  rocks,  and  stored  with  fish  and 
wild-fowl.  The  younger  Pliny  (Ep.  xi.  95)  celebrates  two  woody  islands 
that  floated  on  its  waters  :  if  a  fable,  how  credulous  the  ancients  !  if  a 
fact,  how  careless  the  modems  !  yet,  since  Pliny,  the  islands  may  have 
been  fixed  by  new  and  gradual  accessions." — Gibbon^  v.  128. 

As  we  approach  Bolsena  the  valley  is  hemmed  in  to  our 
right  by  curious  basaltic  rocks,  formed  by  rows  of  columns 
closely  imbedded  together,  as  at  the  Giant's  Causeway,  and 
at  Dunstanborough  in  Northumberland.  Since  railways 
have  diverted  the  traffic,  there  has  been  absolutely  no  inn  in 


Street  Scene,  Bolsena 


the  little  town  of  Bolsena,  though  artists  may  obtain  lodgings 
there.  They  will  find  plenty  of  work  in  its  old  streets,  full 
of  beautiful  doorways,  and  charming  subjects  of  vine-covered 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


loggias  before  the  old  houses,  with  views  of  the  blue  lake 
beneath  the  twining  branches. 

Outside  the  northern  gate  is  a  sort  of  little  piazza,  round 
which  are  ranged  some  altars  and  capitals  of  columns,  relics 
of  the  city  of  Volsinii,  which  the  Romans  built  on  the  site 
of  the  earlier  Etruscan  city  of  Volsinium,  celebrated  in  the 
pages  of  Livy.  Sejanus,  the  favourite  of  Tiberius,  was  born 
at  Volsinii. 


That  which  alone  saves  Bolsena  now  from  sinking  into  utter 
insignificance,  is  the  fame  of  Sta.  Christina,  for  though  her 
legend  is  rejected  by  the  authorities  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  her  fame  continues  to  be  great  through  the  whole 
of  central  Italy,  and  as  the  little  town  of  Tiro,  where  she  was 
born,  on  the  shore  of  the  lake,  has  been  swallowed  up  by  its 
waters,  the  pilgrimages  in  her  honour  are  all  now  devoted  to 
Bolsena,  where  she  is  buried. 

"  Her  legend,  as  given  in  the  Perfetto  Legendario,  represents  her  as  the 


BOLSENA.  113 

daughter  of  Urbanus,  a  Roman  patrician,  and  governor  of  the  city.  He 
was  an  idolater,  but  his  daughter,  who  had  been  early  converted  to  the 
faith  of  Christ,  called  herself  therefore  Christina.  '  One  day,  as  she 
stood  at  her  window,  she  saw  many  poor  and  sick,  who  begged  alms, 
and  she  had  nothing  to  give  them.  But  suddenly  she  remembered  that 
her  father  had  many  idols  of  gold  and  silver ;  and,  being  filled  with  the 
holy  zeal  of  piety  and  charity,  %he  took  these  false  gods  and  broke  them 
in  pieces,  and  divided  them  amongst  the  poor.  When  her  father  returned 
and  beheld  what  had  been  done,  no  words  could  express  his  rage  and 
fury  I  He  ordered  his  servants  to  seize  her  and  beat  her  with  rods,  and 
throw  her  into  a  dark  dungeon ;  but  the  angels  of  heaven  visited  and 
comforted  her,  and  healed  her  wounds.  Then  her  father,  seeing  that 
torments  did  not  prevail,  ordered  them  to  tie  a  mill-stone  round  her 
neck,  and  throw  her  into  the  lake  of  Bolsena ;  but  the  angels  still 
watched  over  her ;  they  sustained  the  stone,  so  that  she  did  not  sink, 
but  floated  on  the  surface  of  the  lake  ;  and  the  Lord,  who  beheld  from 
heaven  all  that  this  glorious  virgin  had  suffered  for  His  sake,  sent  an 
angel  to  clothe  her  in  a  white  garment,  and  to  conduct  her  safe  to  land. 
Then  her  father,  utterly  astonished,  struck  his  forehead  and  exclaimed, 
"What  meaneth  this  witchcraft?"  And  he  ordered  that  they  should 
light  a  fiery  furnace  and  throw  her  in  ;  but  she  remained  there  five  days 
unharmed,  singing  the  praises  of  God.  Then  he  ordered  that  her  head 
should  be  shaved,  and  that  she  should  be  dragged  to  the  temple  of 
Apollo  to  sacrifice  ;  but  no  sooner  had  she  looked  upon  the  idol,  than 
it  fell  down  before  her.  When  her  father  saw  this  his  terror  was  so 
great  that  he  gave  up  the  ghost. 

** '  But  the  patrician  Julian,  who  succeeded  him  as  governor,  was  not 
less  barbarous,  for,  hearing  that  Christina  in  her  prison  sang  perpetually 
the  praises  of  God,  he  ordered  her  tongue  to  be  cut  out,  but  she  only 
sang  more  sweetly  than  ever,  and  uttered  her  thanksgivings  aloud,  to 
the  wonder  of  all  who  heard  her.  Then  he  shut  her  up  in  a  dungeon 
with  serpents  and  venomous  reptiles  ;  but  they  became  in  her  presence 
harmless  as  doves.  So,  being  well-nigh  in  despair,  this  perverse  pagan 
caused  her  to  be  bound  to  a  post,  and  ordered  his  soldiers  to  shoot  her 
with  arrows  till  she  died.  Thus  she  at  length  received  the  hardly-earned 
crown  of  martyrdom  ;  and  the  angels,  full  of  joy  and  wonder  at  such 
invincible  fortitude,  bore  her  pure  spirit  into  heaven.' " — Jameso^i's 
Legendary  Art. 

The  beautiful  Church  of  Sta.  Christina  stands  near  the 
Roman  gate.     In  front  of  it  is  a  splendid  sarcophagus,  with 
VOL.  II.  0 


114  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

Bacchic  bas-reliefs.  The  doors  have  ornaments  by  Luca 
della  Robbia.  Inside,  is  the  shrine  of  the  saint,  with  three 
scenes  from  her  prolonged  martyrdom, — the  cutting  off  of 
her  breasts,  her  being  roasted  in  a  furnace,  and  her  being 
shot  with  arrows. 

A  dark  chapel  on  the  left  is  famous  as  the  scene  of  the 
Miracle  of  Bolsena,  pourtrayed  by  Raphael  on  the  Walls  of 
the  Stanze,  when,  to  convert  an  unbelieving  priest,  the  conse- 
crated wafer  bled  at  the  moment  of  elevation.  The  in- 
stitution of  the  festival  of  Corpus  Domini  by  Urban  IV.  is 
often  attributed  to  this  story,  but  really  resulted  from  the 
visions  of  Julienne,  abbess  of  Mont  Cornillon  near  Liege. 
The  miracle  of  Bolsena  has  however  a  still  greater  memorial 
in  the  Cathedral  of  Orvieto. 

"The  story  of  the  miracle  of  Bolsena  presents  one  of  the  most  singu- 
lar examples  of  the  acceptance,  and  intensely-felt  influences  in  the  popu- 
lar mind,  of  the  miraculous,  admitted  without  any  such  proofs  or 
investigations  as  modern  intellect  would  demand.  And  the  two  versions 
of  the  same  story  are  essentially  different.  A  German  priest,  troubled 
in  conscience  for  having  doubted,  not  (it  seems)  the  doctrine  of  a  realy 
but  of  a  carnal  Presence,  in  the  Eucharist,  set  out  for  Rome,  with  the 
hope  of  securing  the  intercession  of  the  chief  Apostle,  for  the  solving  of 
his  doubts  or  pardoning  of  his  errors.  Resting  one  day  on  the  shores  of 
the  beautiful  lake  of  Bolsena,  he  celebrated  mass  in  the  church  of  Sta. 
Christina  ;  and  after  the  consecration,  whilst  holding  the  sacred  Host 
in  his  hands,  with  mind  earnestly  bent,  as  was  natural,  on  the  myste- 
rious question  that  had  led  him  to  undertake  his  pilgrimage,  beheld 
blood  issuing  from  the  consecrated  species,  and  staining  the  linen  cor- 
poral ;  each  stain  severally  assuming  the  form  of  a  human  head,  with 
features  like  the  'Volto  Santo,'  or  supposed  portrait  of  the  Saviour! 
Such  is  one  version  ;  but  different  indeed  are  even  leading  details  in  the 
other — namely,  that  the  priest  merely  let  fall  some  drops  of  consecrated 
wine  on  the  corporals,  and  when  endeavouring  to  conceal  this  by  folding 
up  the  linen,  found  that  the  liquid  had  passed  through  all  the  folds, 
leaving  on  each  a  red  stain,  in  circular  form  like  the  Host !  The  rest 
of  the  story  is  given  without  discrepancies,  and  is  perfectly  credible. 
Too  much  awe-stricken  to  consume  the  elements,  that  priest,  now  for 


BOLSENA. 


"S 


ever  cured  of  scepticism,  reverentially  reserved  both  those  sacramental 
species ;  proceeded  to  Orvieto,  and  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of  the 
Pope,  confessing  his  doubts,  and  narrating  the  miracle.  Urban  IV.  im- 
mediately sent  the  Bishop  of  Orvieto  to  bring  thither  the  Host  and  the 
corporals  ;  and  himself,  with  all  the  local  clergy,  went  in  procession  to 
meet  the  returning  prelate,  at  a  bridge  some  miles  distant,  where  he  re- 
ceived the  sacred  deposit  from  his  hands.  It  was  soon  afterwards,  in  1264, 
that  Urban  IV.  published  at  Orvieto  the  bull  instituting  the  Corpus 
Domini  festival,  and  commissioned  S.  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  was  then 
giving  theological  lectures  in  that  city,  to  compose  the  office  and  hymns 
for  the  day." — Heman's  Hist,  of  Mediczval  Christianity. 

Three  stones  "  insanguinati "  are  enclosed  in  the  altar, 
and  beneath  it  is  another  relic,  the  stone  which  was 
tied  to  the  feet  of  Sta.  Christina,  that  she  might  sink  in 
the  lake,  but  which  miraculously  bore  her  up  like  a  boat, 
and  on  which  her  holy  foot-marks  may  still  be  seen.  In  the 
sacristy  is  a  predella  telling  the  story  of  S.  George. 


Castle  Gate,  Bolsena, 


We  were  amused  by  the  curious  sense  of  proprietorship 
manifested  by  the  little  children  who  surrounded  us  while 


ll6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

we  were  drawing  at  Bolsena.  "  You  think  that  those  roses 
in  your  hand^re  beautiful,  don't  you  ?  "  said  one  little  child 
of  six  years  old  to  another;  "  you  should  see  the  roses  in  jny 
vigna." 

"  Ah,  tu  hai  una  vigna  ! "  exclaimed  the  little  listener  with 
wide  jealous  eyes. 

Most  lovely  is  the  ascent  from  Bolsena  into  the  vine-clad 
hills,  where,  between  the  garlands  hanging  from  tree  to  tree, 
one  has  glimpses  of  the  broad  lake  with  its  islands,  and  the 
brown  castle  and  town  rising  up  against  it  in  the  repose  of 
their  deep  shadow. 


Lake  of  Bolsena. 


Considerably  to  the  right,  but  accessible  from  this  road, 
is  the  wonderfully  picturesque  mediaeval  town  of  Bagnorea, 
the  ancient  Balneum  Regis,  in  the  midst  of  a  wild  volcanic 
district,  and  occupying  a  high  hill-top,  only  approached  by 
narrow  ridges  across  tremendous  gulfs  which  separate  it 
from  the  table-land.  This  remote  town  was  the  birth-place 
of  Giovanni  da  Fidanza,  the  "Seraphic  Doctor,"  who  obtained 
his  name  of  S.  Buonaventura  from  the  exclamation  of  S. 


APPROACH  TO  OR  VIE  TO.  117 

Francis,  "  O  buona  ventura,"  when,  during  a  severe  illness,  he 
awoke  from  a  death-like  trance  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  his 
great  master.  He  died  in  1240,  leaving  behind  him  a  vast 
number  of  mystic  works,  bearing  such  names  as — "The 
Nightingale  of  the  Passion  of  our  Lord  fitted  to  the  Seven 
Hours,"  "The  six  wings  of  the  Cherubim  and  the  six 
wings  of  the  Seraphim,"  and  "The  Soul's  Journey  to  God." 
Dante  introduces  him  as  singing  the  praises  of  S.  Dominic 
in  Paradise : — 

••lo  son  la  vita  di  Bonaventura 

Da  Bagnoregio,  che  ne'  grandi  uffici 

Sempre  posposi  la  sinistra  cura." 

Par.  xii.  127. 

Long  before  reaching  Orvieto,  one  comes  in  sight  of  it.  It 
occupies  an  Etruscan  site.  On  turning  the  crest  of  the  hills 
which  shelter  Bolsena,  one  looks  down  into  a  wide  valley 
filled  with  the  richest  vegetation, — peach-trees  and  almonds 
and  figs,  with  vines  leaping  from  tree  to  tree  and  chaining 
them  together,  and  beneath,  an  unequalled  luxuriance  of 
corn  and  peas  and  melons,  every  tiniest  space  occupied. 
Mountains  of  the  most  graceful  forms  girdle  in  this  paradise, 
and,  from  the  height  whence  we  first  gaze  upon  it,  endless 
distances  are  seen,  blue  and  roseate  and  snowy,  melting 
into  infinity  of  space ;  while,  from  the  valley  itself,  rises, 
island-like,  a  mass  of  orange-coloured  rock,  crowned  with 
old  walls  and  houses  and  churches,  from  the  centre  of  which 
is  uplifted  a  vast  cathedral,  with  delicate  spray-like  pinnacles, 
and  a  golden  and  jewelled  front, — and  this  is  Orvieto. 

The  first  impression  is  one  which  is  never  forgotten, — a 
picture  which  remains ;  and  the  quiet  grandeurs  of  the  place, 
as  time  and  acquaintance  bring  it  home  to  one,  only  paint  in 
the  details  of  that  first  picture  more  carefully. 


Ii8  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  La  citta  d  Urbivieto  e  alta  e  strana : 
Questa  da  Roman  vecchi  il  nome  prese, 
Ch'andavan  la  perche  I'aere  v'  e  sane." 

Fazio  degli  Uberti. 

"  Orvieto  is  built  upon  the  first  of  those  huge  volcanic  blocks  which 
are  found  like  fossils,  embedded  in  the  more  recent  geological  founda- 
tions of  the  Campagna  of  Rome.  Many  of  them,  like  that  on  which 
Civita  Castellana  is  perched,  are  surrounded  by  rifts  and  chasms,  and 
ravines  and  fosses,  strangely  furrowed  and  twisted  by  the  force  of  fiery 
convulsions.  But  their  advanced  guard,  Orvieto,  stands  up  definite  and 
solid,  an  almost  perfect  cube,  with  walls  precipitous  to  north  and  south 
and  east,  but  slightly  sloping  to  the  westward.  At  its  foot  rolls  the 
Paglia,  one  of  those  barren  streams  which  swell  in  winter  with  the 
snows  and  rains  of  the  Apennines,  but  which  in  summer-time  shrink  up, 
and  leave  bare  beds  of  sand  and  pestilential  cane-brakes  to  stretch 
irregularly  round  their  dwindled  waters. 

"The  time  to  see  this  landscape  is  at  sunrise ;  and  the  traveller  should 
take  his  stand  upon  the  rising  ground  over  which  the  Roman  road  is 
carried  from  the  town — the  point,  in  fact,  which  Turner  has  selected 
for  his  vague  and  misty  sketch  of  Orvieto  in  our  Gallery.  Thence  he 
will  command  the  whole  space  of  the  plain,  the  Apennines,  and  the 
river  creeping  in  a  straight  line  at  the  base  ;  while  the  sun,  rising  to  his 
right,  will  slant  along  the  mountain  flanks,  and  gild  the  leaden  stream, 
and  flood  the  castled  crags  of  Orvieto  with  a  blaze  of  light.  From  the 
centre  of  this  glory  stand  out  in  bold  relief  old  bastions  built  upon  the 
solid  tufa,  vast  gaping  gateways  black  in  shadow,  towers  of  churches 
shooting  up  above  a  medley  of  deep -corniced  tall  Italian  houses,  and, 
amid  them  all,  the  marble  front  of  the  cathedral,  calm  and  solemn  in  its 
unfamiliar  Gothic  state.  Down  to  the  valley  from  these  heights  there  is  a 
sudden  fall ;  and  we  wonder  how  the  few  spare  olive-trees  that  grow 
there  can  support  existence  on  the  steep  slope  of  the  cliff". 

"Our  mind,  in  looking  at  this  landscape,  is  irresistibly  carried  to  Jeru- 
salem. We  could  fancy  ourselves  to  be  standing  on  Mount  Olivet,  with 
the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat  between  us  and  the  Sacred  City.  As  we 
approach  the  town  the  difficulty  of  scaling  its  crags  seems  insurmount- 
able. The  road,  though  carried  skilfully  along  each  easy  slope  or  ledge 
of  quarried  rock,  still  winds  so  much  that  nearly  an  hour  is  spent  in  the 
ascent.  Those  who  can  walk  should  take  a  foot-path,  and  enter 
Orvieto  by  the  mediaeval  road,  up  which  many  a  Pope,  flying  from  re- 
bellious subjects  or  foreign  enemies,  has  hurried  on  his  mule." — J.  A, 
Symonds. 


ASCENT  TO  OR  VIE  TO. 


119 


"  Never  can  I  forget  one  view  I  enjoyed  of  this  cathedral.  Early  on 
an  autumn  morning  I  left  Orvieto  to  travel  by  vettura  southwards.  The 
valley  that  surrounds  the  isolated  height  where  the  city  stands,  ok  the 
plateau  above  her  rock- fortifications,  was  filled  with  dense  mist,  like  a 
rolling  sea  of  white  waves ;  nothing  of  town,  towers,  or  rocks  was  visi- 
ble through  that  autumnal  veil ;  but  there,  all  radiant  in  the  morning  sun, 
rose,  as  if  on  an  aerial  island,  the  glorious  fa9ade,  its  marbles  and  pin- 
nacles, mosaics  and  sculptures,  glittering  in  solitary  resplendence  under 
the  eye  of  Heaven." — Hemans. 


From  the  Walls  of  Orvieto. 


We  descend  into  the  plain  by  the  winding  road,  where 
wains  of  great  grey  oxen  are  always  employed  for  the 
country  work  of  the  hill-side,  and  we  ascend  the  hill  on 
which  the  city  stands,  and  enter  it  by  a  gate  in  rocky  walls. 
The  town*  is  remarkably  clean,  but  one  has  always  the  feeling 
of  being  in  a  fortress.  Unlike  Viterbo,  gaiety  and  brightness 
seem  to  have  deserted  its  narrow  streets  of  dark  houses, 
interspersed  with  huge  tall  square  towers  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  themselves,  in  the  less  frequented  parts,  built  of  rich- 
brown  stone,  with  sculptured  cornices  to  their  massive  doors 
and  windows,  and  resting  on  huge  buttresses.     From  one  of 

.  •  There  are  two  good  inns  at  Orvieto — the  "  Belle  Arti "  and  the  "Aquila  Nera." 


120  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  narrowest  and  darkest  of  these  streets  we  come  suddenly 
upon  the  cathedral,  a  blaze  of  light  and  colour,  the  most 
aerial  Gothic  structure  in  the  world,  every  line  a  line  of 
beauty.  There  is  something  in  the  feeling  that  no  artists 
worked  at  this  glorious  temple  but  the  greatest  architects, 
the  greatest  sculptors  of  their  time,  that  no  material  was 
used  but  that  which  was  most  precious,  most  costly,  and 
which  would  produce  the  most  glorious  effect,  which  carries 
one  far  away  from  all  comparisons  with  other  earthly  build- 
ings— to  the  description  in  the  Revelation  of  the  New 
Jerusalem.  The  very  platform  on  which  the  cathedral 
stands  is  of  purple  Apennine  marble ;  the  loveliest  jaspers 
and  pietre  dure  are  worked  into  its  pinnacles  and  but- 
tresses ;  the  main  foundation  of  its  pictured  front  is  gold. 
A  hundred  and  fifty-two  sculptors,  of  whom  Arnolfo  and 
Giovanni  da  Pisa  are  the  greatest  names  handed  down 
to  us,  worked  upon  the  ornamentation  near  the  base : 
sixty-eight  painters  and  ninety  workers  in  mosaic  gave  life 
to  the  glorious  pictures  of  its  upper  stories.  All  the  sur- 
roundings are  harmonious — solemn  old  houses,  with  black 
and  white  marble  seats  running  along  their  basement,  on 
which  one  may  sit  and  gaze :  a  tower  surmounted  by  a 
gigantic  bronze  warrior,  who  strikes  the  hours  with  the  clash 
of  his  sword  upon  a  great  bell :  an  ancient  oblong  palace 
with  Gothic  arches  and  flat  windows,  where  thirty-four  popes 
have  sought  a  refuge  or  held  a  court  at  different  times  * — all 

*  When  Gardiner  and  Fox  were  sent  on  an  embassy  to  Clement  VII.  here,  they 
wrote,  "  The  Pope  lieth  in  an  old  palace  of  the  bishop's  of  this  city,  ruinous  and  de- 
cayed, where,  or  we  come  to  his  pryvey-chamber,  we  pass  three  chambers,  all  naked 
and  unhanged,  the  roofs  fallen  down,  and  as  we  can  guess  thirty  persons,  rif-raf  and 
others,  standing  in  the  chambers  for  a  garnishment.  And  as  for  the  Pope's  bed- 
chamber, all  the  apparel  in  it  was  not  worth  twenty  nobles,  bed  and  all."  The  first 
Pope  who  resided  at  Orvieto  was  Adrian  IV. — the  Englishman,  Nicholas  Breakspear, 
—but  the  palace  was  built  by  Urban  IV.,  1261 — 64. 


CATHEDRAL  OF  OR  VIE  TO.  121 

serving  as  a  dark  setting  to  make  more  resplendent  the 
glittering  radiancy  of  the  golden  front  of  the  temple  in  their 
midst. 

•*  Willmgly  would  I  descant  on  the  matchless  fa9ade  of  Orvieto,  similar 
in  style,  but  more  chaste  and  elegant  than  that  of  Siena — on  the  graces 
of  its  Lombard  architecture — on  its  fretted  arches  and  open  galleries — 
its  columns  varied  in  hue  and  form— its  aspiring  pediments — its  marigold 
window  with  the  circling  guard  of  saints  and  angels — its  quaint  bas- 
reliefs — its  many-hued  marbles — its  mosaic  gilding,  warming  and  en- 
riching the  whole,  yet  imparting  no  meretricious  gaudiness, — the  entire 
fa9ade  being  the  petrifaction  of  an  illuminated  missal — a  triumphant 
"blaze  of  beauty  obtained  by  the  union  and  tasteful  combination  of  the 
three  Sister  graces  of  Art." — Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

No  passing  traveller,  no  stayer  for  one  night,  can  realize 
Orvieto.  Hours  must  be  passed  on  those  old  stone  benches, 
hours  in  reading  the  wondrous  lessons  of  art,  of  truth,  of 
beauty,  and  of  holiness  which  this  temple  of  temples  can 
unfold.  For  Orvieto  is  not  merely  a  vast  sculpture-gallery 
and  a  noble  building,  but  its  every  stone  has  a  story  to  tell 
or  a  mystery  to  explain.  What  depths  of  thought  are  hidden 
in  those  tremendous  marble  pictures  between  the  doors ! 
First  the  whole  story  of  Genesis ;  then  the  Old  Testament 
story,  which  followed  Genesis,  leading  on  to  the  birth  of 
Christ ;  then  the  story  of  our  Saviour's  life  upon  earth ;  and, 
lastly,  the  lesson  of  His  redemption  wrought  for  us,  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  to  the  second  life.  Even  the  minor 
figures  which  surround  these  greater  subjects,  how  much 
they  have  to  tell  us  !  Take  the  wondrous  angels  which 
surround  the  story  of  Christ  \  the  Awe-stricken  Angel  of  the 
Salutation,  the  Welcoming  Angel  of  the  Flight  into  Egypt,  the 
Praying  Angel  of  the  Temptation,  the  Suffering  Angel  of  the 
Betrayal,  the  Agonized  Angel  (and,  oh,  what  a  sublime  figure, 
with  its  face  covered  with  its  hands)  of  the  Crucifixion,  the 


122  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Angel,  rapt  in  entire  unutterable  beatitude,  of  the  Resur- 
rection. Or  let  us  look  at  the  groups  of  prophets,  who, 
standing  beneath  the  life  of  Christ,  foi*esee  and  foretell  its 
events, — their  eager  invocation,  their  meditation,  their  in- 
spiration, their  proclamation,  of  that  which  was  to  be. 

Above  these  lower  subjects  is  a  great  Mosaic  of  the 
Virgin  and  Child  as  the  centre  of  the  whole,  and,  on  either 
side  of  it,  the  Baptism  of  Christ,  and  the  Birth  of  the  Virgin 
between  the  bronze  emblems  of  the  Evangelists.  Next  we 
have  the  Assumption,  between  the  Annunciation  and  the 
story  of  Joachim  and  Anna.  Then  the  stupendous  rose 
window  between  the  Spozalizio  and  the  Presentation  in  the 
Temple,  and,  highest  of  all,  a  grand  representation  of  the 
Coronation  of  the  Virgin. 

*'The  cathedral  of  Orvieto  is  the  grand  monumental  record  of  dog- 
matic teaching  as  to  the  Holy  Sacrament  of  the  Altar  ;  and  the  sublime 
office  for  Corpus  Domini,  composed  by  S.  Thomas  Aquinas,  does  not 
more  impressively  convey  its  meanings  in  orison  or  hymn,  than  does  this 
splendid  cathedral  in  the  various  art -works  adorning  it — in  the  very 
fact,  indeed,  of  its  existence. 

'*  In  1344  Clement  VI.  granted  an  indulgence  to  all  those  who  should 
visit  Orvieto  for  devotional  purposes;  which  spiritual  favours  were 
doubled  in  an  indulgence  from  Gregory  IX.,  obtainable  by  all  who 
should  assist  at  the  works  for  this  new  cathedral.  Then  were  seen 
citizens  of  all  classes  co-operating,  besides  multitudes  of  pilgrims,  who, 
after  attending  religious  services,  would  spend  the  rest  of  the  day  in 
doing  what  they  could  to  help  the  masons,  stone-cutters,  or  other  artizans 
at  the  sacred  building.  Persons  of  good  condition  carried  burdens  on 
their  shoulders  ;  and  those  who  could  not  do  rough  work,  brought 
drink  or  food  to  the  labourers,  enabling  them  thus  to  refresh  themselves 
without  leaving  the  spot.  It  is  one  of  the  proofs  how  utterly  were 
Sabbatarian  notions  foreign  to  the  mediaeval  mind,  even  while  religious 
influences  were  at  the  greatest  height,  that  Sundays  and  other  festivals 
were  marked  by  special  activity  (in  the  hours  after  the  principal  rites 
were  over)  during  the  progress  of  these  labours.  Companies  of  artists 
were  sent  to  seek  and  to  work  the  most  suitable  marbles  at  Rome, 


CA  THEDRAL  OF  OR  VIE  TO.  123 

Siena,  and  Cometo  ;  and  such  prepared  material  used  to  be  brought  to 
Orvieto  by  buffaloes,  or  (if  from  Rome)  up  the  Tiber  as  far  as  Orte. 

•'  This  glorious  cathedral  was  consecrated  by  the  Cardinal  Bishop  of 
the  see,  Nov.  13,  1677.  If  it  be  surpassed  by  other  examples  of 
Italian  Gothic  in  architectural  completeness  or  general  harmony  of 
effect,  its  fa9ade  stands  unrivalled,  a  sun  amidst  minor  luminaries.  No 
description  could  do  justice  to  that  pomp  of  beauty,  that  concentrated 
resplendence  of  art — the  noble  offering  of  man's  genius,  skill,  and 
labours,  strained  to  the  utmost  during  successive  ages,  to  glorify  the 
Eternal  in  this  wondrous  structure." — Hematis'  Hist,  of  Medi<zval 
Christianity. 

•*  As  regards  the  bas-reliefs  on  the  front  of  the  cathedral,  which 
Vasari  ascribes  to  Niccola,  Giovanni,  and  other  artists  whom  he 
generalizes  under  the  name  of  *  Tedeschi,'  it  is  at  the  present  time  im- 
possible to  fix  either  the  date  of  their  completion,  or  the  names  of  the 
numerous  sculptors  who  assisted  in  producing  them.  .  .  .  The  greatest 
sculptor  employed  at  the  cathedral  in  the  first  years  after  its  foundation 
in  1290,  was  Ramo  di  Paganello  *de  ultramontis, '  a  master  who,  after 
the  commission  of  some  offence  against  the  laws  of  Sienna,  had  been 
exiled  and  then  pardoned  in  1281.  With  Ramo  di  Paganello  in  1293 
were  Jacobo  Cosme  of  Rome,  Fra  Guglielmo  of  Pisa,  Guido,  and  a 
number  of  other  sculptors  from  Como.  .  .  .  The  bas-reliefs  of  the  front 
sufficiently  prove  that  sculptors  of  different  periods  executed  various  parts 
of  them ;  and  as  the  labours  of  the  edifice  lasted  till  1356  under  Lorenzo 
and  his  son  Vitale  Maitani,  it  is  apparent  that,  in  addition  to  works  that 
might  have  been  completed  in  the  loggia  at  an  early  time,  others  of 
much  later  period  were  used. 

**  The  principal  ornaments  of  the  front  are  four  pilasters.  .  ..  In  the 
first  on  the  left,  representing  scenes  from  the  creation  to  tlje  settlement 
of  the  children  of  Noah,  the  creation  of  Adam  and  Eve,  in  the  lowest 
course,  is  a  fine  composition,  full  of  truthful  and  natural  movement,  no 
longer  in  the  conventional  and  sculptural  forms  peculiar  to  Niccola 
and  the  continuators  of  his  manner,  but  by  one  who  sought  to  follow, 
and,  if  possible,  to  improve  upon,  nature.  They  may  therefore  be  by 
Andrea  Pisano.  The  Temptation,  and  Adam  and  Eve  hiding  at  the 
voice  of  our  Lord, — the  Expulsion,  and  our  first  parents  labouring  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brow, — the  Sacrifice  of  Cain  and  Abel,  and  the  murder  of 
the  latter,  were  of  that  advanced  art  which  seemed  to  foreshadow  the 
manner  of  Pollaiolo.  Noah  teaching  his  children.  Tubal  Cain  and 
Seth,  in  the  uppermost  course,  were  no  longer  in  the  same  style,  but 
revealed,  in  their  short  and  square  figures,  the  manner  of  the  followers 
of  Niccola.     The  second  pilaster  was  devoted  to  the  genealogy  of  the 


124  I>A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

house  of  David,  and  terminated  at  the  upper  part  by  a  relief  of  the 
Crucifixion.  The  third  was  occupied  by  incidents  from  the  life  of  the 
Saviour,  admirably  composed  and  grouped,  but  recalling,  like  the 
second,  the  styles  of  Niccola  and  Giovanni's  followers.  In  the  fourth 
pilaster,  the  upper  course  representing  the  Saviour  in  glory  was  of  the 
same  class;  but  the  lower  compartment,  far  different,  exhibited  more 
modern  types,  and  seemed  the  perfection  of  the  manner  of  Giovanni 
Pisano.  It  would  have  been  difficult  to  find  a  more  fertile  fancy,  greater 
skill  in  rendering  form,  more  vigour  or  character,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century  than  were  exhibited  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead 
from  their  graves,  and  in  the  agonies  of  tortured  souls  in  the  Inferno. 
Here,  Lucifer  was  no  longer  the  quaint  hybrid  of  Niccola  and  Giovanni, 
but  a  monster  in  human  form,  writhing  with  bound  hands,  and  supported 
by  hissing  dragons,  whose  scaly  frames  were  twined  round  his.  The 
most  inexhaustible  invention  seemed  hardly  taxed  by  the  variety  of  pains 
haflicted  and  endured  by  the  sinners  \  nor  would  it  be  easy  to  find  more 
truthful  imitations  of  nature  in  the  most  varied  motion  than  in  the  figures 
of  those  in  the  grasp,  or  hanging  from  the  jaws,  of  the  devils.  Such  life 
and  motion  might  well  have  caused  wonder  in  Signorelli  when  he  laboured 
in  this  very  Duomo,  and  in  Michael  Angelo,  whose  imaginative  mind 
might  be  struck  with  the  ingenuity  of  one  in  whom  he  could  recognize  a 
spirit  akin  to  his  own." — Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

"Among  the  bas-reliefs  of  Orvieto  is  perhaps  the  most  important 
series  of  the  Days  of  Creation  existing.  Here,  in  some  measure  doubt- 
less owing  to  the  conditions  of  sculpture,  which  does  not  admit  of  sub- 
jects requiring  colour,  the  series  commences  with  the  Creation  of  Fishes 
and  Birds  on  the  fifth  day. 

"Here  the  Creator  is  seen  attended  by  two  angels,  who  accompany 
Him  throughout,  and  seem,  by  their  expression  and  actions,  intended 
to  suggest  the  emotions  proper  to  the  scene.  Thus  they  hover  behind 
Christ  as  he  stands  on  the  brink  of  a  stream  blessing  the  fish  who  are 
disporting  in  it,  while  the  birds  stand  on  the  opposite  cliff  in  a  stiff  row, 
as  if  awaiting  the  Divine  mandate.  In  this  scene  the  eagle  and  the  goose 
are  easily  recognizable ;  while  some  songster  of  the  grove  alights  with 
outspread  wings  on  a  bush  close  by,  and  in  the  distance  a  hawk  stands 
by  itself. 

•  "On  the  sixth  day  the  same  figure,  attended  by  two  angels  in  gestures 
of  admiration,  is  seen  blessing  the  animals,  who  stand  in  two  files  before 
them.  In  front  are  the  smaller  quadrupeds — the  goat,  the  pig,  and  two 
species  of  long-haired  sheep,  which  remind  us  of  similar  fancy  animals, 
doubtless  then  cultivated  in  Italy,  which  appear  in  pictures  by  old 

^masters.     Behind  them  are  the  ox,  the  horse,  and,  further  from  us,  the 


CA  THEDRAL  OF  OR  VIE  TO.  12$ 

lion  and  the  camel.  A  dog,  that  dumb  friend  of  man,  is  seen  beneath 
the  ox,  his  well-known  companion." — Lady  Eastlake,  History  of  Our 
Lord. 

"The  happiest  innovation  (anticipated  indeed  in  the  mosaics  of 
Venice)  is  the  introduction  of  two  angels  attendant  on  Our  Lord 
throughout  the  work  of  Creation  and  his  subsequent  intercourse  with 
man." — Lord  Lindsays  Christian  Art. 

After  seeing  the  exterior,  the  interior  of  the  cathedral 
seems  bare  and  colourless,  yet  it  is  full  of  beauty,  though 
occasionally  the  effect  of  the  13th-century  work  is  destroyed 
by  later  details.  The  pillars  are  striped  with  alternate  black 
and  white  marble  as  at  Siena,  and  a  strange  lurid  light  is  cast 
by  alabaster  windows  at  the  west  end.  The  east  end  is 
fall  of  colour  from  early  Umbrian  frescoes,  and  has  beauti- 
ful tarsia  work  of  hermits  and  sainted  bishops.  The  statues 
which  stand  before  the  pillars  in  the  nave  are  of  gigantic 
size  and  take  away  from  the  effect  of  height :  the  best 
are  those  by  Ippolito  Scalza  of  S.  John  and  S.  Thomas,  and 
the  S.  Roch  near  the  entrance. 

••The  Annunciation  is  represented  in  front  of  the  choir  by  two  colossal 
statues  by  Francesco  Mochi :  to  the  right  is  the  Angel  Gabriel,  poised  on 
a  marble  cloud,  in  an  attitude  so  fantaatic  that  he  looks  as  if  he  were 
going  to  dance  ;  on  the  other  side  stands  the  Virgin,  conceived  in  a 
spirit  how  difficult !  yet  not  less  mistaken  ;  she  has  started  from  her 
throne  ;  with  one  hand  she  grasps  it,  with  the  other  she  seems  to  guard 
her  person  against  the  intruder  ;  majesty  at  once,  and  fear,  a  look  of  in- 
sulted dignity,  are  in  the  air  and  attitude, — '■'•parcJie  minacci  e  tenia  net 
tempo  istesso,^' — but  I  thought  of  Mrs  Siddons  while  I  looked,  not  of  the 
Virgin  Mary." — Jameson's  Sacred  Art. 

'•The  frescoes  in  the  choir  of  Orvieto  are  by  Ugolino  di  Prete  Ilario. 
They  represent  the  glory  of  the  Trinity,  the  life  of  the  Virgin,  the 
prophets,  apostles,  and  fathers  of  the  Church,  with  forty  popes  and 
bishops  in  half-length  figures." — Kugler. 

"The  paintings  (in  the  choir)  represent  the  life  of  the  Virgin,  in 
twenty-eight  compartments, — twenty-two,  in  two  rows,  circulating 
round  the  chapel,  carry  the  history  from  the  Repulse  of  Joachim  to  the 


126  -BAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

Dispute  in  the  Temple  ;  it  is  resumed  above  the  Eastern  window  with 
her  dying  interview  vnth  the  Apostles,  her  Death,  her  Burial  and 
Resurrection,  and  concludes  with  her  Assumption  and  Coronation,  this 
last  occupying  a  large  lunette  on  the  vault  of  the  chapel,  the  three 
corresponding  spaces  being  filled  with  personations  of  God  the  Father, 
God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  each  attended  by  angels  ;  the 
twelve  prophets  are  depicted  at  full  length  on  the  north  and  south  walls, 
parallel  to  the  Assumption,  and  below  them  again  the  Apostles,  six  on 
either  side,  each  holding  a  scroll  containing  the  article  which  he  con- 
tributed to  the  creed,  within  the  jambs  or  hollows  of  the  rose-windows, 
attended  to  the  right  and  left  respectively  by  the  Evangelists  and 
Doctors  of  the  Church.  While,  lastly,  lowest  of  all,  and  immediately 
above  the  wooden  stalls  of  the  choir,  a  line  of  forty  half-figures  represent 
the  Fathers  and  Doctors  who  have  originated  the  honorary  titles  and 
epithets  of  the  Madonna. 

"These  frescoes  are  very  faded,  and  in  many  places  barely  distinguish- 
able ;  there  is  little  beauty  or  force  in  them,  but  a  degree  of  naivete  and 
simple  feeling  that  is  very  pleasing ;  the  compositions  however  are  much 
inferior  to  the  execution,  and  frequently  very  novel  and  original ;  and 
the  conjecture  naturally  arises  that  the  best  of  them  may  have  been 
borrowed  from  those  of  Pietro  (di  Puccio)  at  Arezzo,  eulogized  by 
Vasari.  The  chapel  was  painted  in  1370." — Lord  Lindsay  s  Christian 
Art. 

"Beneath  the  frescoes  of  the  Calvary,  Burial,  and  Resurrection,  the 
spectator  may  still  read  the  words  :  '  Hanc  capellam  depinxit  Ugolinus 
pictor  de  Urbereteris,  anno  domini  MCCCLXIV.  die  Jovis  VIII. 
mensis  Junii.  Yet  Vasari  with  characteristic  carelessness  assigns  these 
frescoes  to  Pietro  Cavallini,  finding,  no  doubt,  some  vague  resemblance 
of  style  between  them  and  those  of  the  transept  at  Assisi.  This  Ugolino, 
not  to  be  confounded  with  the  goldsmith  Ugolino  di  Veri,  is  called  in 
contemporary  records  *di  Prete  Ilario.'  He  was  employed  at  the 
same  time  with  Orcagna  and  Andrea  Pisano,  and  was  assisted  by 
Maestro  Giovanni  Leonardelli,  a  glass  painter  and  mosaist  long  employed 
in  Orvieto." — Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

To  the  left  of  the  high  altar  is  the  Chapel  of  the  Santissimo 
Corporate,  entirely  covered  with  frescoes  relating  to  the 
Miracle  of  Bolsena  and  the  institution  of  the  festival  of 
Corpus  Domini  which  resulted  from  it.  The  famous  relic 
is  preserved  in  a  silver  shrine  of  1338,  ornamented  with 


FRESCOES  OF  SIGNORELLL  127 

twelve  paintings  in  enamel  by  Ugolino  Vieri,  a  goldsmith 
of  Siena. 

A  beautiful  picture  of  the  Virgin  is  by  Lippo  Memmi. 

"  Inscribed  (in  Latin)  beneath  the  Virgin's  feet  is  *  Lippo,  native  of 
the  pleasant  Siena,  painted  us.'  The  Virgin  stands  with  her  hands  joined 
in  prayer,  between  fourteen  angels,  one  of  whom  at  each  shoulder  loops 
back  her  mantle,  beneath  which  kneels  in  three  rows  a  noble  crowd  of 
kings,  princes,  monks,  and  nuns.  The  Virgin  has  an  oval  face  and 
broad  neck,  the  angels  full  faces  and  throats,  and  hair  waving  round 
broached  fillets  in  attitudes  affecting  grace.  The  colour  is  lively,  rosy, 
and  flat,  and  the  execution  careful  beyond  measure." — Crowe  and 
Cavalcaselle. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  nave  is  the  more  famous  chapel 
of  the  Madojina  di  S.  Brizio,  a  glorious  gallery  of  13th- 
century  art.  Here  one  learns  to  appreciate  the  tremendous 
power  q{  Luca  Signorelli  (1440 — 1521),  so  Httle  known  else- 
where, following  as  the  successor  of  Fra  Angelico  da  Fiesole, 
who  painted  the  lovely  groups  of  Christ,  the  Virgin,  and 
saints  upon  the  ceiling.  The  frescoes  of  Signorelli  are  a 
regular  series, — first,  we  have  the  teaching  of  Antichrist ;  no 
repulsive  figure,  but  a  grand  personage  in  flowing  robes,  and 
with  a  noble  countenance,  who,  at  a  distance,  might  easily 
be  mistaken  for  the  Saviour,  and  who  bears  all  His  usual 
pictorial  attributes.  To  him  the  crowd  are  eagerly  gathering 
and  listening,  and  it  is  only  when  you  draw  close,  that  you 
can  discover  in  his  harder  and  cynical  expression,  and  from 
the  evil  spirit  whispering  in  his  ear,  that  it  is  not  Christ. 
Then  we  have  the  Resurrection — the  vast  angels  of  the 
judgment  blow  their  trumpets,  and  the  dead  arise,  struggling, 
labouring,  out  of  the  earth,  to  obey  a  summons  which  they 
cannot  resist.  Then  comes  Hell,  so  filled  with  misery,  that 
the  pictured  suffering  seizes  upon  your  imagination,  and  will 


128  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

come  back  at  intervals  for  ever — with  the  recollection  of  the 
fiends  of  Signorelli,  not  monsters,  but  men  filled  with  hatred 
and  vengeance,  torturing  the  naked  souls,  or  floating  over 
them  on  bat-like  wings.  And  lastly  we  reach  the  Resurrection 
of  the  Just,  where  the  angelic  choirs  are  welcoming  a  con- 
course of  rejoicing  souls,  whose  every  attitude  and  expression 
betokens  the  most  unspeakable  bliss.  Beneath  are  por- 
traits of  some  of  the  Italian  poets :  that  of  Dante  is  quite 
magnificent. 

•'While  the  priest  sings,  and  the  people  pray  to  the  dance-music  of 
the  organ,  let  us  take  a  quiet  seat  unseen,  and  picture  to  our  minds  how 
the  chapel  looked  when  Angelico  and  Signorelli  stood  before  its  plas- 
tered walls,  and  thought  the  thoughts  with  which  they  covered  them. 
Four  centuries  have  gone  by  since  those  walls  were  white  and  even  to 
their  brushes  ;  and  now  you  scarce  can  see  the  golden  aureoles  of  saints, 
the  vast  wings  of  angels,  and  the  flowing  robes  of  prophets  through  the 
gloom.  Angelico  came  first,  in  monk's  dress,  kneeling  before  he 
climbed  the  scaffold  to  paint  the  angry  Judge,  the  Virgin  crowned,  the 
white-robed  army  of  the  Martyrs,  and  the  glorious  company  of  the 
Apostles.  These  he  placed  upon  the  roof,  expectant  of  the  Judgment. 
Then  he  passed  away,  and  Luca  Signorelli,  the  rich  man  who  *  lived 
splendidly  and  loved  to  dress  himself  in  noble  clothes,'  the  liberal  and 
courteous  gentleman,  took  his  place  upon  the  scaffold.  For  all  the 
worldliness  of  his  attire  and  the  delicacy  of  his  living,  his  brain  teemed 
w^ith  stern  and  terrible  thoughts.  He  searched  the  secrets  of  sin  and  of 
the  grave,  of  destruction  and  of  resurrection,  of  heaven  and  hell.  All 
these  he  has  painted  on  the  walls  beneath  the  saints  of  Fra  Angelico. 
First  come  the  Troubles  of  the  last  Days,  the  Preaching  of  Antichrist,  and 
the  Confusion  of  the  Wicked.  In  the  next  compartment,  we  see  the 
Resurrection  from  the  Tomb,  and  side  by  side  with  that  is  painted  Hell. 
Paradise  occupies  another  portion  of  the  chapel. 

"Look  at  the  'Fulminati' — so  the  group  of  wicked  men  are  called 
whose  death  precedes  the  judgment.  Huge  naked  angels,  sailing  upon 
van-like  wings,  breathe  columns  of  red  flame  upon  a  crowd  of 
wicked  men  and  women.  In  vain  they  fly  from  the  descending  fire.  It 
pursues  and  fells  them  to  the  earth.  As  they  fly,  their  eyes  are  turned 
toward  the  dreadful  faces  in  the  air.  Some  hurry  through  a  portico, 
huddled  together,  falling  men,  and  women  clasping  to  their  arms  dead 


FRESCOES  OF  SIGNORELLI. 


129 


babies  scorched  with  flame.  One  old  man  stares  straight  forward, 
doggedly  awaiting  death.  One  woman  scouts  defiance  as  she  dies.  A 
youth  has  twisted  both  hands  in  his  hair,  and  presses  them  against  his 
ears  to  drown  the  screams  and  groans,  and  roaring  thunder.  They 
trample  upon  prostrate  forms  already  stiff".  Every  shape  and  attitude  of 
sudden  terror  and  despairing  guilt  is  here.  Next  comes  the  Resur- 
rection. Two  angels  of  the  judgment — gigantic  figures,  with  the  plume- 
less  wings  that  Signorelli  loves — are  seen  upon  the  clouds.  They  blow 
trumpets  with  all  their  might ;  so  that  each  naked  muscle  seems  strained 
to  make  the  blast,  which  bellows  through  the  air,  and  shakes  the  sepul- 
chres beneath  the  earth.  Thence  rise  the  dead.  All  are  naked,  and  a 
few  are  seen  like  skeletons.  With  painful  effort  they  struggle  from  the 
soil  that  clasps  them  round,  as  if  obeying  an  irresistible  command. 
Some  have  their  heads  alone  above-ground.  Others  wrench  their  limbs 
from  the  clinging  earth ;  and  as  each  man  rises  it  closes  under  him. 
One  would  think  that  they  were  being  born  again  from  solid  clay  and 
growing  into  form  with  labour.  The  fully  risen  spirits  stand  and  walk 
about,  all  occupied  with  the  expectation  of  the  judgment ;  but  those 
that  are  in  the  act  of  rising  have  no  thought  but  for  the  strange  and 
toilsome  process  of  this  second  birth.  Signorelli  here,  as  elsewhere, 
proves  himself  one  of  the  greatest  painters  by  the  simple  means  by 
which  he  produces  the  most  marvellous  effects.  His  composition  sways 
our  souls  with  all  the  passion  of  the  terrible  scenes  that  he  depicts.  Yet 
what  does  it  contain  ?  Two  stern  angels  on  the  clouds,  a  blank  grey 
plain,  and  a  multitude  of  naked  men  and  women.  In  the  next  com- 
partment Hell  is  painted.  This  is  a  complicated  picture,  consisting  of 
a  mass  of  human  beings  entangled  with  torturing  fiends.  Above  hover 
demons,  bearing  damned  spirits,  and  three  angels  see  that  justice  takes 
its  course.  Signorelli  here  degenerates  into  no  mediaeval  ugliness  and 
mere  barbarity  of  form.  His  fiends  are  not  the  bestial  creatures  of 
Pisano's  bas-reliefs,  but  models  of  those  monsters  which  Duppa  has 
engraved  from  Michael  Angelo's  *  Last  Judgment, ' — lean,  naked  men,  in 
whose  hollow  eyes  glow  the  fires  of  hate  and  despair,  whose  nails  have 
grown  to  claws,  and  from  whose  ears  have  started  horns.  They  sail 
upon  bats'  wings,  and  only  by  their  livid  hue,  which  changes  from 
yellow  to  the  ghastliest  green,  and  by  the  cruelty  of  their  remorseless 
eyes,  can  you  know  them  from  the  souls  they  torture  in  Hell.  Ugliness 
and  power  of  mischief  come  with  length  of  years  ;  continual  growth 
in  crime  distorts  the  form  which  once  was  human  ;  and  the  interchange 
of  everlasting  hatred  degrades  the  tormentor  and  his  victim  in  the  same 
demoniac  ferocity.  To  this  design  the  science  of  foreshortening,  and 
the  profound  knowledge  of  the  human  form  in  every  posture,  give  it* 
VOL.   II.  9 


130  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

chief  interest.  Paradise  is  not  less  wonderful.  Signorelli  has  con- 
trived to  throw  variety  and  grace  into  the  somewhat  monotonous  groups 
which  this  subject  requires.  Above  are  choirs  of  angels,  not  like  Yxa. 
Angelico's,  but  tall  male  creatures  clothed  in  voluminous  drapery,  with 
grave  features  and  still  solemn  eyes.  Some  are  dancing,  some  are  sing- 
ing to  the  lute,  and  one,  the  most  gracious  of  them  all,  bends  down  to 
aid  a  suppliant  soul.  The  men  beneath,  who  listen  in  a  state  of  bliss, 
are  all  undraped.  Signorelli,  in  this  difficult  composition,  remains 
temperate,  serene,  and  simple  ;  a  Miltonic  harmony  pervades  the  move- 
ment of  his  angelic  choirs.  Their  beauty  is  the  product  of  their  strength 
and  virtue.  No  floral  ornaments,  or  cherubs,  or  soft  clouds  are  found 
in  his  Paradise.  Yet  it  is  fair  and  full  of  grace.  Michael  Angelo  could 
not  have  painted  such  celestial  bliss,  and  Luca  seems  to  have  anticipated 
Raphael." — J.  A.  Symonds.* 

"Fra  Angelico  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the  rulers  of  Orvieto 
on  the  14th  of  June,  1447,  to  employ  his  summer  recess  of  three  months 
every  year  in  painting  the  chapel  of  S.  Brizio,  in  the  cathedral,  in 
fresco,  for  which  he  was  to  be  paid  two  hundred  gold  florins  per  annum, 
his  pupil  Benozzo  seven  per  month,  and  two  assistants  three  each.  He 
began  immediately,  and  worked  without  intermission  till  the  28th  Sep- 
tember, by  which  time  the  three  most  southerly  compartments  in  the 
groined  roof  of  the  chapel,  overhanging  the  altar,  were  completed — two 
by  himself,  and  the  third  by  Benozzo.  Something,  however,  of  an  un- 
pleasant nature — the  death,  probably,  of  Antonio  Giovanelli,  one  of  his 
assistants,  who  fell  from  the  scaffold  and  was  killed — had  occurred  to 
discompose  him,  and  he  returned  no  more,  though  expressly  invited  to 
do  so,  and  the  chapel  remained  for  fifty  years  unfinished,  till  completed 
by  Luca  Signorelli. 

**  Meanwhile,  the  two  compartments  coloured  by  Fra  Angelico  would 
of  themselves  repay  a  pilgrimage  to  Orvieto.  In  the  lunette  over  the 
altar,  opposite  as  you  enter.  Our  Saviour  is  seated  in  judgment,  support- 
ing the  globe  of  the  universe,  as  in  the  mosaics,  a  most  majestic  figure. 
His  face  turned  in  reproof  towards  the  reprobate,  sorrowful  wrath  dark- 
ening the  face  of  love  ;  the  vesica  piscis  surrounds  Him,  and  He  is 
attended  by  angels  blowing  the  summons.  But  the  '  Prophetarura 
laudabilis  numerus,'  the  noble  host  of  the  Seers  of  Israel,  on  the  left 
hand  of  Our  Saviour,  are  still  given,  rising  in  a  pyramidal  group  till 
they  culminate  in  the  swart-haired  Baptist ;  the  Moses  especially  is 
magnificent,  a  prophet  indeed.  For  majesty  these  are  certainly  Fra 
Angelico's  chef-d'oeuvre;  they  show  how  capable  he  was  of  expressing 

*  From  "  Sketches  in  Italy  and  Greece,"  which  contain  some  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  poetical— yet  true — word-pictures  in  the  English  language. 


FRESCOES  OF  SIGNORELLL  131 

the  loftiest  thoughts  as  well  as  the  tenderest  and  softest — hell  and  sin 
were  alone  too  difficult  for  him." — Lord  Lindsay's  Christian  Art. 

"The  upper  part  of  the  hinder  wall,  and  a  compartment  of  the  vault- 
ing, are  adorned  by  Fiesole,  1447.  The  wall  contains  Christ  as  the 
Judge  of  the  world,  surrounded  by  the  loveliest  angelic  forms  ;  the 
Saviour  is  similar  in  action  to  that  by  Orcagna,  but  without  the  same 
lofty  expression  of  Divine  wrath.  On  the  vaulting  are  seen  the  prophets, 
one  behind  the  other,  in  a  pyramidal  group,  chiefly  venerable  forms, 
full  of  dignity  and  beauty,  in  splendily-arranged  drapery  on  a  gold 
ground.     This  subject  is  like  a  vision  of  heavenly  glory." — Kugler, 

'*  The  council  of  the  cathedral,  after  waiting  nine  years  for  Perugino, 
and  after  trying  Pinturicchio,  finally  resolved  that  Luca  Signorelli 
should  decorate  the  chapel  of  S.  Brizio. 

**  It  would  be  curious  to  ascertain  what  the  painter's  reflections  may 
have  been  as  he  contemplated  the  unfinished  master-pieces  of  Angelico 
on  one  of  the  ceilings  of  the  chapel.  The  last  great  artist  who  embodied 
the  essentially  religious  element  had  left  the  traces  of  a  mighty  talent 
behind.  How  was  the  equally  mighty  representative  of  new  principles 
and  of  modem  modes  of  thought,  to  reconcile  his  creations  with  those  of 
his  precursor  ?  One  can  understand  a  debate  in  the  Orvieto  council,  if 
the  members  discussed  the  relative  merits  of  Pinturicchio  and  Signo- 
relli. Would  not  the  tender,  perhaps  affected,  Perugian  be  better 
suited  to  continue  the  work  of  the  mystic  Dominican  than  the  fiery 
follower  of  Piero  della  Francesca?  But  Signorelli  prevailed.  Pin- 
turicchio, whose  art  is  that  of  Perugino  minus  his  best  qualities,  was  not 
fit  to  compete  with  the  gigantic  power  of  one  whose  opus  following  on 
that  of  his  teacher  was  necessary  to  the  development  of  Italian  painting  ; 
— who  left  at  Orvieto  his  mark  for  all  time. 

"Looking  round  him  at  Orvieto,  Signorelli  might  see,  not  merely  the 
comparatively  small  production  of  a  ceiling  by  Angelico  ;  his  imagin- 
ation might  feed  on  the  examples  of  great  bygone  sculptors.  He 
could  leisurely  examine  the  bas-reliefs  of  the  time  of  the  Pisan  revival, 
the  Giottesque  ones  of  Andrea  Pisano.  He  might  perhaps  still  see 
mosaics  by  Orcagna.     He  certainly  followed  the  ideas  of  Dante  in  the 

conception  of  an  Inferno Here,  then,  on  the  classic  ground 

trod  before  by  so  many  Italian  artists,  Signorelli,  at  the  age  of  three- 
score, was  enabled  to  satisfy  his  instincts  to  the  full  by  delineating 
scenes  of  a  highly  dramatic  character.  Had  it  been  the  fortune  of 
Angelico  to  complete  the  chapel  of  S.  Brizio,  he  would  no  doubt  have 
painted  the  same  subjects  in  the  grand  but  kindly  solemn  spirit  which 
pervades  those  in  the  ceilings, — a  spirit  the  very  reverse  of  that  which 
marks  the  colossal,  and  often  vulgar,  forms  of  the  Cortonese.     Both  men 


132  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

were  great  in  their  path  ;  but  they  pursued  different  ways  and  aims  ;  the 
one  wafting  the  spectators  into  an  atmosphere  of  cahn,  the  other  with 
difficulty  convincing  him  that  he  is  not  hovering  over  a  field  of  battle. 
Unavoidable  indeed  is  the  reflection  that  Signorelli,  whilst  he  challenges 
our  admiration,  does  so  by  a  medley  of  conflicting  and  not  always 
pleasing  impressions.  The  pleasure  which  he  creates  is  not  entirely  un- 
alloyed. Like  Michael  Angelo,  he  fascinates  and  crushes  ;  he  extorts 
applause  by  his  extraordinary  vigour,  and  hardly  leaves  a  moment  for 
the  analysis  of  the  sensations  which  crowd  together  at  sight  of  his 
master-pieces.  Cold  reason  supervenes.  We  admit  the  daring  con- 
ception, and  its  successful  realization,  but  we  feel  less  sympathy  than 
surprise.  The  athlete  has  taken  away  our  breath  by  the  performance  of 
his  feats  ;  he  has  not  touched  one  of  the  softer  fibres  of  our  heart." — 
Croive  and  Cavalcaselle. 

The  famous  picture  of  the  Madonna  in  this  chapel,  long 
an  object  of  pilgrimage,  is  very  curious. 

* '  In  pictures,  we  rarely  find  the  Virgin  standing,  before  the  end  of  the 
14th  century.  An  almost  singular  example  is  to  be  found  in  an 
old  Greek  Madonna,  venerated  as  miraculous,  in  the  cathedral  of 
Orvieto,  under  the  title  of  La  Madonna  di  San  Brizio,  and  to  which  is 
ascribed  a  fabulous  antiquity.  I  may  be  mistaken,  but  my  impression, 
on  seeing  it,  was,  that  it  could  not  be  older  than  the  end  of  the  13th 
century." — Jameson's  Legends  of  the  Madonna. 

Though  it  rather  injures  the  effect  of  the  chapel,  the 
famous  Pietk  of  Ippolito  Scaha  (1579),  sculptor  of  several 
other  works  in  the  cathedral,  must  not  pass  unnoticed.  It 
is  a  group  of  four  figures  larger  than  life,  and  is  very  grand 
in  its  way. 

The  Signorelli  Chapel  should  be  seen  in  the  colouring 
of  early  morning,  when  the  sun  streams  directly  through  its 
windows  upon  the  walls  whence  the  living  frescoes  arise 
from  the  dead  gold  of  their  ground-work,  and  upon  the 
polished  floor  of  purple  Apennine  marble.  Then  the  rest 
of  the  church,  which  is.  separated  from  the  chapel  by  a  gor- 


IL  POZZO  DI  S.  PATRIZIO.  133 

geous  wrought-iron  screen,  is  lost  in  its  deep  shadows,  and 
one  seems  to  be  alone  with  the  spirits  and  the  dead. 


Bell-tower,  Orvieto. 

Many  of  the  older  churches  of  Orvieto  are  full  of  interest, 
and  have  been  too  little  noticed.  In  the  Church  of  S. 
Bernardino  is  a  good  picture  by  Sinibaldo  Ibi  of  the  Virgin 
enthroned  between  S.S.  Peter  and  Paul,  the  kneeling  Francis, 
and  Bernardino.  Leaving  the  more  inhabited  parts  of  the 
town,  one  must  visit,  where  it  stands  forlorn  and  deserted 
on  a  grass-grown  space,  the  old  Church  of  S.  DomenicOy 
which  was  used  as  a  fortress  by  the  Guelfs  in  1346,  for  it 
contains  a  grand  monument  by  Arnolfo  to  Cardinal  di 
Braye,  who  died  in  1282. 

'*  Supported  on  brackets  high  up  in  the  right  transept  of  the  church, 
this  monument  is,  like  those  of  the  Cosmati  at  Rome,  a  mixture  of 
mosaic,  sculpture,  and  architecture.  The  body  of  the  cardinal  lies  on 
the  slab  of  the  sarcophagus,  whose  sides  are  adorned  with  mosaics.  A 
trefoil  tabernacle,  supported  on  twisted  columns,  is  pointed  at  the  apex 
and  sides  with  statuettes  of  a  square  Roman  build." — Crowe  and  Caval- 
caselle. 

Not  far  from  this,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  town,  is  the 
well  called  //  Fozzo  di  San  Fatrizio,  made  by  Sangallo  to 
supply  the  garrison  in  case  of  siege,  when  Clement  VII.  and 
his  court  fled  hither  after  the  sack  of  Rome  in  1527,  the 


134  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

last  of  a  long  series  of  popes  who  have  sought  a  refuge  in 
Orvie*o.  It  is  a  hollow  tower  with  two  staircases  of  248 
steps,  circling  one  above  the  other,  one  for  ascent,  the  other 
for  descent.  The  well  was  commemorated  on  the  reverse 
of  a  medal  designed  and  struck  by  Benvenuto  Cellini  at  the 
command  of  Clement  VII.,  who  wished  it  to  bear  a  figure 
of  Moses  striking  the  rock,  with  the  legend  "  Ut  bibat  popu- 
lus." 

Close  by  is  the  Castle,  beneath  which  a  hollow  way 
through  the  rocks  leads  under  a  postern  gate  in  the  walls. 
Combined  with  the  tall  canes  and  the  flocks  of  goats  which 
may  frequently  be  seen  here,  it  is  a  splendid  subject  for 
an  artist. 

In  the  Casa  Gualtieri  (the  house  of  Count  Gualtieri  the 
historian)  is  a  fine  fresco  of  S.  Michael  trampling  on  the 
dragon,  by  Eusebio,  removed  from  the  Gualtieri  chapel  in 
the  cathedral. 

And  no  artist  must  leave  Orvieto  without  rambling  round 
its  walls,  with  their  wide  views  over  valley  and  mountains, 
whose  delicate  tints  contrast  with  the  dark  brown  of  the 
crumbling  houses  and  solid  bastions  of  the  town.  The 
ramparts  end  in  a  triangle  near  S.  Juvenalis,  a  curious  old 
church,  much  spoilt  by  whitewash,  but  covered  with  beauti- 
ful decaying  frescoes  of  the  Umbrian  school. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

NARNI  AND  TERNI. 

(There  is  now  no  decent  inn  at  Nami,  but  tolerable  lodgings  may  be 
obtained  there  at  a  very  low  price,  and  good  food  from  a  trattoria.  At 
Temi  there  are  several  very  good  hotels,  and  plenty  of  carriages  at  the 
station;  Nami,  however,  is  far  the  most  beautiful  place.) 

SOON  after  losing  sight  of  Soracte,  the  railway  to  the 
north  passes  Otricoli.  Two  miles  below  this,  in  the 
plain,  are  the  ruins  of  Ocrlculum^  the  southernmost  city  of  Um- 
bria,  44  miles  from  Rome,  on  the  Via  Flaminia.  It  was 
here,  in  B.C.  217,  that  Fabius  Maximus  took  the  command 
of  the  army  of  Servilius,  after  the  battle  of  Thrasymene.  In 
413,  the  army  of  Heraclianus,  Count  of  Africa,  was  defeated 
here  by  Honorius.  Ancient  inscriptions  speak  of  the  place 
as  "  splendidissima  civitas  Ocricolana,"  a  description  which  is 
borne  out  by  the  number  of  remains  of  important  public 
buildings  discovered  in  1780.  The  famous  mosaic  floor  of 
the  Vatican  and  a  colossal  head  of  Jupiter  were  found  at 
this  time ;  but  the  existing  ruins  are  unimportant.  Ocricu- 
lum  was  an  episcopal  see  after  the  fall  of  the  Empire.  It  is 
not  known  when  the  city  perished  or  why  the  inhabitants  re- 
moved to  the  present  town,  which  is  picturesquely  situated 
on  a  hill  above  the  Tiber.  Ariosto  speaks  of  the  windings 
of  the  river  here,  but  the  trees  he  describes  have  disap- 
peared : 


136^  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

**  Ecco  vede  im  pratel  d' ombre  coperto 
Che  si  d'un  alto  fiume  si  ghirlanda 
Che  lascia  a  pena  un  breve  spazio  aperto, 
Dove  I'acqua  si  torce  ad  altra  banda, 
Un  simil  luogo  con  girevol  onda 
Sott'  Oticoli  '1  Tevere  circonda." 

Cant.  xiv.  38. 

We  now  reach  Orte^  whence  the  railway  to  Orvieto 
diverges.  The  town  is  picturesquely  situated  on  a  rocky 
platform,  and  in  its  situation  is  something  like  a  miniature 
Orvieto,  the  houses  rising  close  upon  the  edge  of  the  tufa 
rocks. 

Here  we  leave  the  Tiber,  which  flows  beneath  Orvieto, 
and  follow  the  course  of  the  Nera,  the  Nar  of  classical 
times,  which  emerges  from  a  wooded  ravine,  with  white  sul- 
phurous waters, 

**  Sulfurea  Nar  albus  aqua." 

Mn.  vii.  518. 

and  falls  into  the  Tiber  below  Orte. 

"Narque  albescentibus  undis 
In  Tiberim  properans." 

Sil.  Ital.  viii.  453. 

Few  ravines  are  more  full  of  beauty  than  the  deep  narrow 
gorge  below  Narni,  broken  here  and  there  by  masses  of  grey 
rock,  elsewhere  clothed  with  the  richest  green  of  ilex,  cork, 
phillyrea,  arbutus,  mastick,  and  flowering  heath.  Above,  on 
the  right,  rise  the  grey  walls  and  the  picturesque  towers  of 
the  town.  Just  where  the  glen  opens  towards  the  plain  on 
the  other  side,  the  Via  Flaminia  is  carried  over  the  ravine 
of  the  Nar  by  the  famous  Bridge  of  Augustus^  which  is  con- 
sidered to  surpass  all  other  bridges  in  boldness.  Originally 
it  had  three  arches,  of  which  one  on  the  right  bank  is  entire, 
and  sixty  feet  in  height.     Martial  alludes  to  it  as  the  pride ,' 


BRIDGE  OF  AUGUSTUS. 


137 


of  the  place  in  his  days,  when  he  accuses  Narni,  by  its 
superior  attractions,  of  taking  away  his  neighbour  Quintus 
Ovidius  from  his  Nomentan  farm. 

*•  Namia,  sulfureo  quam  gurgite  candidus  amnis 
Circuit,  ancipiti  vix  adeunda  jugo. 
Quid  tarn  saepe  meum  nobis  abducere  Quinctum 

Te  juvat,  et  lenta  detinuisse  mora  ? 
Quid  Nomentani  causam  mihi  perdis  agelli, 

Propter  vicinura  qui  pretiosus  erat  ? 
Sed  jam  parce  mihi,  nee  abutere,  Namia,  Quincto  ; 
Perpetuo  liceat  sic  tibi  ponte  frui." 

Ep.  vii.  93. 

The  bridge  is  now  a  grand  ruin,  ivy  and  shrubs  garlanding 
its  mighty  parapets.  Between  the  piers  is  a  most  picturesque 
view  of  the  ruined  convent  of  S.  Casciano,  crowning  a  rock 
amid  the  woods. 


Roman  Bridge,  Narni. 


Close  to  the  Roman  ruin,  is  an  old  mediaeval  bridge 
guarded  by  a  high  gate  tower,  almost  equally  picturesque. 

A  winding  road  leads  up  the  hill  to  the  town,  which 
occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient  Narnia,  called  Nequinum 


138 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 


by  the  Umbrians.      It  was  taken  b.  c.  299  by  the  consul 
M.  Fulvius,  who  was  consequently  honoured  with  a  triumph 


Mediaeval  Bridge,  Nami. 


"  de  Samnitibus  Nequinatibusque."  During  the  2nd  Punic 
War,  Narni  was  the  point  at  which  an  army  was  posted  to 
oppose  the  approach  of  Hasdrubal  on  Rome.  The  town 
owes  its  ruin,  chiefly,  not  to  Goths  or  Vandals,  but  to 
soldiers  in  the  pay  of  the  Venetian  Republic. 

Most  beautiful  are  the  views  of  the  glen  and  river  from 
the  old  walls.    The  situation  is  well  described  by  Claudian  • 

*'  Celsa  dehinc  patulum  prospectans  Narnia  campum 
Regali  calcatur  equo,  rarique  coloris 
Non  procul  amnis  adest  urbi,  qui  nominis  auctor, 
Ilice  sub  densa  sylvis  arctatus  opacis 
Inter  utrumque  jugum,  tortis  anfractibus  albet." 

De  Sext.  Cons.  Hon.  515. 

and  its  rock-enthroned  position  is  alluded  to  by  other 
poets : 


AMELIA.  139 

" .  .  duro  monti  per  saxa  recumbens 
Narnia." 

Sil.  Ital.  viii.  458. 

The  Emperor  Nerva  was  bom  at  Narni,  and  in  later  times 
Pope  John  XVIIL,and  the  fifteenth-century  chieftain  Gatta- 
melata,  more  properly  called  Erasmo  da  Narni. 

The  Cathedral  of  S.  yuvenalis  is  dedicated  to  the  memory 
of  its  first  bishop,  a.  d.  369,  and  is  a  most  picturesque  build- 
ing, which  no  artist  will  fail  to  transfer  to  his  sketch-book.  The 
church  of  S.  Girolamo  contains  a  fine  altar-piece  by  a  pupil 
of  Ghirlandajo,  copied  by  Lo  Spagna. 

**  The  Saviour  crowns  the  Virgin,  on  clouds  supported  by  cherubs* 
heads,  under  a  conical  canopy  held  up  by  seraphs,  in  the  centre  of  a 
company  of  angels,  prophets,  and  sibyls.  On  the  meadow  below,  S. 
Francis  kneels  amid  a  crowd  of  saints,  amongst  whom  are  S.S.  Jerome, 
Louis,  Bernardino,  and  John  the  Baptist.  The  arching  of  the  upper 
part  is  a  border  with  cherubs'  heads  ;  and  three  niches  in  each  pilaster 
contain  S.S.  James,  Mary  Magdalen,  Louis,  Giovanni  Capistrano, 
Catherine,  and  Bernardino." — Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

(It  is  a  drive  of  6  miles  from  Narni  (carriage  10  francs) 
to  the  old  city  of  Amelia^  beautifully  situated  on  the  side  of 
the  Umbrian  mountains.  This  town  is  seldom  visited,  but 
well  deserves  attention.  It  is  now  the  seat  of  a  bishopric, 
but  its  chief  interest  is  derived  from  its  Cyclopean  walls,  of 
which  there  are  magnificent  remains.  As  Ameria^  it  was 
one  of  the  most  important  cities  of  Umbria.  Cato,  quoted 
by  Pliny  (iii.  14),  says  that  the  origin  of  Ameria  was  much 
older  than  that  of  Rome,  and  that  it  was  founded  b.  c.  1045. 
The  place  is  frequently  mentioned  by  Cicero  in  his  defence 
of  Roscius,  in  a  manner  which  proves  that  it  must  then  have 
been  a  flourishing  municipal  town.  It  is  mentioned  by 
Virgil: 


Ido  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  Aut  Amerina  parant  lentae  retinacula  viti." 

Geo7'gics,  i.  265. 

and  by  Silius  : 

"  .  .  His  populi  fortes  Amerinus." 

viii.  462. 

It  is  Still,  as  in  ancient  times,  celebrated  for  its  delicious 
plums,  which  flourish  abundantly  in  its  rocky  soil,  and  are 
dried  and  sold  in  great  quantities.) 

A  very  short  railway  journey,  leaving  the  mountains  and 
crossing  a  richly  cultivated  plain,  takes  us  to  Terfu  {Inns ; 
Angleterre,  Tre  Coldnne),  a  small,  rather  prosperous  town, 
with  some  manufactories.  It  occupies  the  site  of  one  of  the 
many  cities  called  Interamna,  in  this  case,  on  account  of  its 
situation  near  the  meeting  of  the  Nar  and  Velinus,  and  it  is 
said  to  have  been  founded  b.  c.  672.  There  is  a  tradition,  with- 
out any  foundation  (though  inscribed  over  the  town-gate),  that 
Tacitus  the  historian  was  bom  here,  but  it  was  certainly  the 
patrimonial  residence  of  his  descendants,  the  Emperors  Taci- 
tus and  Florianus.  Here,  in  a.  d.  253,  the  Emperors  Tre- 
bonianus  Gallus  and  Volusianus  his  son  were  put  to  death  by 
their  own  soldiers  while  marching  against  ^milianus.  Some 
insignificant  remains  exist  of  an  amphitheatre  (in  the  bishop's 
garden)  and  of  temples  dedicated  to  Hercules  and  the  Sun. 
A  number  of  Roman  inscriptions  are  collected  on  the  walls 
of  the  Palazzo  Publico.  Terni  is  the  seat  of  a  very  ancient 
bishopric,  but  the  dull  Cathedral  of  S.  Maria  Assunta  was 
designed  by  Bernini.  The  Church  of  S.  Francesco  has  a 
chapel  with  some  interesting  frescoes  (c.  1475)  attributed  to 
Fiorenzo  di  Lorenzo^  an  admirable  though  little-known  master, 
whose  principal  works  are  at  Perugia. 

(It  is  a  drive  of  about  4  miles  from  the  town  to  the  celebrated  Falls  of 


THE  VELINO.  141 

the  Velino,  La  Cadnta  delle  Marmore.  A  carriage  costs  from  5  to  10 
francs,  but  a  distinct  agreement  must  be  made.  Plenty  of  small  copper 
coins  should  be  taken,  as  various  gates  have  to  be  opened,  and  various 
points  of  view  are  exhibited,  for  which  fees  of  from  2  to  5  soldi  are  amply 
sufficient.  There  are  two  ways  of  seeing  the  Falls :  either  (i)  by  ascend- 
ing the  hills  to  the  summit,  a  long  and  fatiguing  drive,  especially  on 
a  hot  day,  and  descending  near  the  Fall  on  foot  by  a  zig-zag  path  through 
the  rocks  ;  or  (2)  driving  through  the  valley  to  the  gate  leading  to  the 
Villa  Graziani,  whence  a  donkey  (^  to  i  franc)  is  usually  taken  to  the 
foot  of  the  Fall,  by  those  who  do  not  like  to  walk :  it  is  no  great 
distance.) 

The  first  part  of  the  road  to  the  Falls  leads  through  the 
richly  cultivated  valley,  described  by  Pliny  *  as  so  fertile, 
that  its  meadows  would  produce  four  crops  of  hay  in  the 
year.  The  picturesque  village  crowning  the  hill  in  front  is 
Papignia.  Long  before  you  reach  the  Falls  the  sound  of  the 
rushing  waters  tells  of  your  approach. 

The  source  of  the  Velinus  is  close  to  the  ancient  Falacri- 
num,  the  birth-place  of  Vespasian,  where  an  old  church  still 
bears  the  name  of  S.  Maria  di  Fonte  Velino.  Its  waters  are 
so  strongly  impregnated  with  carbonate  of  lime,  that  they 
constantly  tend  to  form  a  deposit  of  travertine,  and  so  to 
block  up  their  own  channel.  The  result  was,  that  unless  the 
course  of  the  river  was  artificially  regulated,  the  valley  of  the 
Velinus  was  frequently  inundated,  while,  if  the  waters  were 
allowed  to  descend  with  too  great  vehemence,  the  fertile 
lands  of  Interamna  shared  the  same  fate.  Marcus  'Curius 
Dentatus,  the  conqueror  of  the  Sabines,  in  b.  c.  271,  was  the 
first  who  attempted  to  make  a  permanent  channel,  which 
should  protect  both  the  lower  and  upper  valleys,  and  for 
that  purpose  carried  the  river  through  a  cutting  in  the  cliff, 
and  formed  the  celebrated  waterfall.     The  channel  of  Den- 

•  xviii.  a8,  s.  67. 


142  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

tatus  was  gradually  filled  up  by  time,  and  other  beds  formed 
for  the  river,  but  the  original  course  was  re-opened  by  Pope 
Clement  VIIL,  in  1598.  The  regulation  of  the  Fall  has, 
from  its  earliest  existence,  been  a  source  of  dispute  between 
the  inhabitants  of  Reate  and  those  of  Interamna  or  Temi. 
A  statue  was  erected  to  Cicero  by  the  people  of  Reate  for 
his  legal  services  on  this  question. 

The  total  height  of  the  waterfall  is  more  than  800  feet. 
The  best  view  of  it  is  from  below  :  no  description  is  neces- 
sary but  that  of  Byron  : 

"  The  roar  of  waters  ! — from  the  headlong  height 
Velino  cleaves  the  wave-worn  precipice  ; 
The  fall  of  waters  !  rapid  as  the  light 
The  flashing  mass  foams  shaking  the  abyss  ; 
The  hell  of  waters !  where  they  howl  and  hiss, 
And  boil  in  endless  torture  ;  while  the  sweat 
Of  their  great  agony,  wrung  out  from  this 
Their  Phlegethon,  curls  round  the  rocks  of  jet 
That  gird  the  gulf  around,  in  pitiless  horror  set, 

"And  mounts  in  spray  the  skies,  and  thence  again 
Returns  in  an  unceasing  shower,  which  round. 
With  its  unemptied  cloud  of  gentle  rain. 
Is  an  eternal  April  to  the  ground, " 
Making  it  all  one  emerald  : — how  profound 
The  gulf !  and  how  the  giant  element 
From  rock  to  rock  leaps  with  delirious  bound. 
Crushing  the  cliffs,  which  downward  worn  and  rent 

With  his  fierce  footsteps,  yield  in  chasms  a  fearful  vent 

*'  To  the  broad  column  which  rolls  on,  and  shows 

More  like  the  fountain  of  an  infant  sea 

Torn  from  the  womb  of  mountains  by  the  throes 

Of  a  new  world,  than  only  thus  to  be 

Parent  of  rivers,  which  flow  gushingly, 

With  many  windings,  through  the  vale  : — Look  back  ! 

Lo  !  where  it  comes  like  an  eternity. 

As  if  to  sweep  down  all  things  in  its  track. 
Charming  the  eye  with  dread, — a  matchless  cataract, 


PIE  DI  LUCa.  143 

-     "  Horribly  beautiful !  but  on  the  verge, 

From  side  to  side,  beneath  the  glittering  mom, 
An  Iris  sits,  amidst  the  infernal  surge, 
Like  Hope  upon  a  death-bed,  and,  unworn 
Its  steady  dyes,  while  all  around  is  torn 
By  the  distracted  waters,  bears  serene 
Its  brilliant  hues  with  all  their  beams  unshorn  : 
Resembling,  'mid  the  torture  of  the  scene. 
Love  watching  Madness  with  unalterable  mien." 

Childe  Harold. 

The  Villa  Graziano,  whose  grounds  contain  the  best 
view  of  the  Falls,  was  once  inhabited  by  Queen  Caroline,  as 
Princess  of  Wales. 

Those  who  have  time  may  visit  the  lake  of  Pie  di  Luco  in 
the  valley  above  the  cascade. 

"  The  beautiful  expanse  of  water  calleji  Pie  di  Lugo,  about  a  mile  in 
breadth,  fills  the  defile,  and  meanders  between  the  mountains  for  some 
miles.  The  way  to  it  from  the  Fall,  is  by  a  path  winding  along  the  foot 
of  the  mountain,  and  leading  to  a  cottage,  where  you  may  take  a  boat, 
and  cross  to  a  bold  promontory  opposite.  There,  seated  in  the  shade, 
you  may  enjoy  the  view  of  the  waters,  of  the  bordering  mountains,  of 
the  towns  perched  on  their  sides,  the  village  Pie  di  Lugo,  and,  rising 
behind  it,  the  old  castle  of  Labro,  whose  dismantled  towers  crown  a 
regular  hill,  while  its  shattered  walls  run  in  long  lines  down  the  decli- 
vity. We  were  here  entertained  with  an  echo  the  most  articulate,  the 
most  retentive,  and  the  most  musical  I  ever  heard,  repeating  even  a 
whole  verse  of  a  song,  in  a  softer  and  more  plaintive  tone  indeed,  but 
with  surprising  precision  and  distinctness." — Eustaces  Tour.* 

(From  Temi  an  excursion  may  be  made  to  Todi^  an  inter- 
esting episcopal  city,  occupying  a  very  lofty  position  above 
the  valley  of  the  Tiber  in  the  direction  of  Perugia.  The 
Gothic  Cathedral  has  some  admirable  frescoes  by  Lo 
Spagna.  Several  other  churches  are  interesting  :  that  of  the 
Madonna   della    Consolazione  is   a  fine  work  of  Bramante. 

•  A  project  is  entertained  for  entirely  draining  this  beautiful  lake. 


144  I) A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Todi  occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient   Tuder,  whose  lofty 
position  is  mentioned  by  Silius  Italicus  : 

"  Gradivicolam  celso  de  coUe  Tudertem." 

iv.  222. 

"...  excelso  summum  qua  vertice  montis 
Devexum  lateri  pendet  Tuder." 

vi.  645. 

The  walls  of  the  city  are  in  many  parts  very  perfect,  but 
are  much  less  rude  than  those  of  Volterra  and  other  Etrus- 
can cities,  and  are  evidently  Roman.  Remains  of  an 
ancient  building  have  been  supposed  to  be  those  of  the 
temple  of  Mars,  which  Silius  alludes  to  : 

"Et  haud  parci  Martem  coluisse  Tudertes." 

viii.  464.) 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
SPOLETO  AND  THE  CLITUMNUS. 

BETWEEN  Terni  and  Spoleto  the  railway  winds  by 
cuttings  and  tunnels  through  the  Mojite  Somma,  which 
in  vetturino  days  was  a  most  picturesque  and  interesting 
pass.  It  is  said  to  derive  its  name  from  a  temple  of  Jupiter 
Summanus  on  its  summit. 

We  emerge  from  the  mountains  close  to  the  grand  old 
archiepiscopal  city  of  Spoleto^  which  covers  the  sides  of  a 
lofty  hill,  while,  behind,  rises  its  fortress,  and  then  the  great 
Monte  Luco,  dotted  with  hermitages  peeping  out  of  the  rich 
foliage  of  evergreen  woods.  Carriages  (50  centimes)  are  wait- 
ing at  the  station  to  take  travellers  into  the  town.  "La 
Posta  "  is  a  very  tolerable  inn. 

Spoleto  was  the  ancient  Spoletium,  which  is  first  mentioned 
in  history  when  a  Roman  colony  was  established  here  b.  c. 
240,  after  close  of  ist  Punic  War.  In  b.  c.  217,  just  after  the 
battle  of  Thrasymene,  Hannibal  advanced  against  Spoletium 
and  was  repulsed,  a  fact  proudly  recorded  on  the  gates  of 
the  town.  In  the  later  part  of  the  same  war  this  was  one  of 
the  colonies  which  proved  themselves  most  faithful  and  de- 
voted to  Rome.  Florus  speaks  of  Spoletium  as  "municipium 
Italiae  splendidissimum,"  Cicero  as  "  colonia  Latinis  in  primis 
firma  et  illustris."  *     Here  the  Emperor  ^milianus  was  put 

*  Cicero  pro  Balb.  az. 
VOL.  It,  10 


146  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

to  death  by  his  soldiers  after  a  three  months'  reign.  The 
fortifications  of  the  town  were  partially  destroyed  by  Totila, 
but  were  restored  by  Narses.  The  Lombards  (c.  a.  d.  570) 
made  Spoleto  the  capital  of  a  duchy,  which  in  time  became 
entirely  independent,  and  did  not  cease  to  exist  till  the 
1 2  th  century. 


Spoleto. 

Since  the  accession  of  the  Sardinian  Government,  a  quantity 
of  new  streets,  and  a  broad  road  winding  up  the  hill,  have 
done  much  to  annihilate  the  mediaeval  aspect  of  Spoleto,  but 
have  greatly  added  to  its  convenience.  The  new  road  leads, 
by  easy  zig-zags,  almost  to  the  castle — La  Rocca — on  the  hill- 
top. This  fortress  was  originally  built  by  Theodoric,  but,  as  it 
now  stands,  is  chiefly  the  work  of  Pope  Nicholas  V.  Just  be- 
low it,  is  the  entrance  to  the  footway  across  the  magnificent 
Aqueduct  of  Delia  Torre,  which  unites  the  town  to  Monte 
Luco.  Though  often  repaired  in  later  times,  it  was  built  by 
Theodelapius,  first  Duke  of  Spoleto,  in  604.* 

*  Campello,  Storia  di  Spoleto. 


CATHEDRAL  OF  SPOLETO,  147 

On  the  other  side  of  the  castle  stands,  on  a  lower  level, 
the  Cathedral  of  S.  Maria  Assunta,  which  was  built  in  11 53, 
when  Frederic  Barbarossa  was  attacking  the  town.  It  is  in 
the  transition  style.  In  the  gabled  west-front  are  eight  rose 
windows.  Between  these,  a  mosaic,  bearing  the  name  of  the 
artist,  Salsernus,  1220,  represents  Christ  throned  between 
the  Virgin  and  St.  John,  a  work  mentioned  by  Lord  Lind- 
say "  as  the  earliest  ascertained  mosaic  of  the  Italico  Byzan- 
tine revival."  *  The  beautiful  renaissance  portico,  with  five 
arches,  a  rich  frijeze,  and  a  stone  pulpit  at  either  end,  is  the 
work  of  Bramante.  The  door-frame  is  very  richly  sculp- 
tured. 

The  interior  is  modernized.  A  chapel  on  the  right  of  the 
entrance  contains  a  ruined  Finturicchio  of  the  Virgin  between 
St.  Joseph  and  St.  Lawrence.  In  the  winter  choir  is  a  pic- 
ture of  the  Virgin  and  Child  between  two  aged  saints.  It  is 
generally  ascribed  to  Lo  Spagna,  but  is  more  probably  the 
work  of  Ber?iardino  Campilius  (c.  1502),  from  whose  hand 
many  pictures  remain  at  Spoleto.  It  serves  as  a  monument  to 
the  Blessed  Gregory  of  Spoleto,  "  who  died  in  converse  with 
angels,  in  extreme  old  age,  in  a  hermitage  on  Monte  Luco, 
in  1473."  On  the  stalls  in  this  chapel  are  allegorical  figures 
of  prophets  and  sibyls,  the  work  of  Jacopo  Siculo^  another 
Spoletan  artist,  of  the  Lo  Spagna  school. 

In  the  entrance  of  the  chapel  on  the  left  of  the  high-altar, 
is  the  tomb  of  the  Florentine  painter  Fra  Filippo  Lippi 
(1412-69),  with  his  bust. 

**  Fra  Filippo  was  requested  by  the  commune  of  Spoleto,  through  the 

medium  of  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  to  paint  the  chapel  of  their  principal 

church — that  of  Our  Lady — and  this  work,  with  the  assistance  of  his 

pupil  Fra  Diamante,  he  was  bringing  to  a 'successful  termination,  when  . 

♦  Christian  Art,  ii.  55. 


148  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

death  prevented  his  completing  it.  It  was  believed  that  the  profligacy 
of  his  conduct  was  the  cause  of  his  death,  and  that  he  was  poisoned  by 
persons  who  were  related  to  the  object  of  his  affections." — Fasari,  ii. 

Lorenzo  de'  Medici  was  sent  as  an  ambassador  by  the 
Florentines  to  reclaim  the  body  of  their  great  fellow-citizen, 
but  was  refused  by  the  Spoletans,  because  their  city  was 
"  so  poorly  provided  with  ornaments,  above  all  with  distin- 
guished men,  and  Florence,  in  her  superfluity,  might  be  con- 
tent without  this  one."     The  epitaph  is  by  Politian : 

"  Conditus  hie  ego  sum  picturse  fama  Philippus 

Nulli  ignota  meae  est  gratia  mira  manus  ; 
Artifices  potui  digitis  animare  colores 

Sperataque  animos  fallere  voce  diu  : 
Ipsa  meis  stupuit  natura  expressa  figuris, 

Meque  suis  passa  est  artibus  esse  parem. 
Marmoreo  tumulo  Medices  Laurentius  hie  me 

Condidit,  ante  humili  pulvere  tectus  eram." 

Lippi  was  always  dabbling  in  imprudent  love-affairs,  and 
already,  many  years  before,  had  carried  off  a  beautiful  nun, 
Lucrezia  Buti,  from  a  convent  at  Prato,  and  by  her  had  be- 
come the  father  of  Filippino. 

Opposite  the  monument  of  Lippi  are  the  tombs  of  Fran- 
cesco Orsini  and  the  Bishop  Fulvio  Orsini,  1581.  In  the 
choir  are  the  frescoes  on  which  Lippi  was  occupied  at  his 
death.  At  the  sides  of  the  Death  of  the  Virgin,  the  Annuncia- 
tion and  the  Nativity  are  depicted. 

"  The  first  is  in  the  spirit  of  Angelico's  conception  of  the  same  sub- 
ject, and  his  pictures  are  conjured  up  before  the  beholder's  eyes,  when 
he  looks  upon  the  angel  presenting  himself  in  the  mouth  of  a  portico  in 
the  form  of  those  common  to  the  Dominican  and  to  Masolino  at  Cas- 
tiglione  di  Olona, — upon  the  Virgin's  graceful  surprise  as  she  receives 
the  message, — or  upon  the  Eternal,  whose  rays  fall  upon  her  through  a 
window  that  lights  the  gallery." — Croive  and  Cavalcaselle. 

"  In  spite  of  all  injuries,  the  charming  fulness  of  \):it  composition,  the 


SPOLETO.  149 

simple  beauty  of  the  figures,  and  the  powerful  colouring,  produce  an  ex- 
cellent effect." — Kugler. 

In  the  roof  of  the  apse  the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin  is  re- 
presented, surrounded  by  angels,  prophets,  and  sibyls. 

Opening  from  the  portico  of  the  Cathedral  is  the  Bap- 
tistery^ which  is  covered  with  interesting  frescoes  by  Jacopo 
Siculo.  On  the  roof  are  Adam,  Noah,  Moses,  and  Mel- 
chizedek ;  on  the  altar-wall,  the  Apostles ;  on  the  left  wall, 
Gabriel ;  on  the  right  wall,  St.  Jerome. 

In  the  Palazzo  Comfnunak,  almost  opposite  the  Cathedral, 
is  a  beautiful  fresco  by  Lo  Spagna,  removed  from  the  citadel, 
representing  the  Virgin  between  S.S.  Jerome  and  Francis, 
Catherine,  and  Brizio. 

"Lo  Spagna  most  retains  his  similarity  to  Perugino  in  this  fresco." — 
Kugier. 

Hence  we  may  descend,  turning  to  the  left,  to  the  Porta 
Romana,  outside  which  is  a  charming /^xi-^^/^/^ — an  avenue 
of  acacias  with  box  hedges.  It  leads  towards  a  convent  on 
a  hill,  whence  there  is  the  best  view  of  Spoleto.  On  the 
left,  approached  by  a  long  flight  of  steps,  is  the  Church  of 
S.  Pietro,  the  original  cathedral  dedicated  to  S.  Brizio,  who  is 
buried  there.  The  west  front  is  most  curious  :  between  the 
iiquare-headed  doors  are  reliefs  of  monsters,  men  in  conflic/ 
with  lions,  and  angels  and  devils  disputing  over  the  dead. 
Above  are  cows,  and  male  figures,  in  high  relief.  Inside,  is 
a  modern  statue  of  the  metropoHtan  S.  Brizio,  kneeling 
before  St.  Peter. 

"This  church  is  mentioned  as  existing  in  the  fifth  century,  and  it  con- 
tinued to  be  the  cathedral  till  1067,  when  the  present  cathedral  was  con- 
structed.    No  record  remains  of  the  date  of  the  very  curious  fajade,  but 


I50  'DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

iie  style  of  its  decorations,  the  rudeness  of  the  workmanship,  and  the 
subjects  which  are  introduced,  give  us  reason  to  beHeve  that  this  part 
of  the  building  must  have  been  added  in  the  course  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. By  that  time,  bas-reliefs,  in  compartments,  had  been  adopted  ; 
and  at  that  time,  knights  in  armour  and  allusions  to  the  last  judgment 
were  commonly  introduced  as  the  ornaments  of  ecclesiastical  buildings. 
In  one  of  the  bas-reliefs  it  will  be  observed  that  an  imp  has  concealed 
himself  beneath  the  balance,  and  is  pulling  down  the  unfavourable  scale. 
"  In  the  struggles  between  the  Emperors  and  the  Popes,  Spoleto,  by 
adhering  to  the  latter,  drew  upon  itself  the  vengeance  of  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  chuixh  of  S.  Pietro,  which  stood 
in  an  exposed  situation,  may  have  been  one  of  the  buildings  which  was 
injured  on  that  occasion,  and  that  the  existing  fa9ade  may  have  been 
added  after  the  storm  had  subsided. " — H.  Gaily  Knight. 

On  the  right  of  the  Passeggiata  are  the  Conve?its  of  S. 
Paolo  and  the  Madonna  di  Loreto. 

The  great  striped  red  and  white  Church  of  S.  Dome7iico^ 
has  a  chapel  covered  with  14th-century  frescoes,  a  Pietk 
attributed  to  Lo  Spag?ia,  and  a  good  copy  of  Raffaelle's 
Transfiguration  by  Giulio  Poma?io.  In  returning  to  the 
hotel  from  hence  we  pass  under  the  Porta  delta  Fuga,  a 
Roman  arch,  formerly  decorated  with  two  lions,  of  which 
one  has  lately  (1874)  been  destroyed,  and  the  other  muti- 
lated. The  adjoining  conventual  Church  has  a  tabernacle 
by  Lo  Spag?ia  containing  a  Virgin  and  Child  between  S.S. 
John  Baptist,  Jerome,  Scholastica,  and  Antonio  Abate.  In 
the  Church  of  S.  Ansano  is  another  noticeable  Lo  SpagTia  of 
the  Virgin  and  Child. 

A  walk  should  be  taken  in  the  early  morning  to  La  Rocca, 
when  the  mists  are  rolling  along  the  gorge  and  through  the 
narrow  arches  of  the  mighty  aqueduct.  Most  lovely  is  then 
the  first  burst  of  sunshine  over  Monte  Luco, — the  whole 
mountain  like  a  most  luxuriant  garden,  covered  with  box, 
sage,  arbutus,  ilex,  and  juniper.     Delightful  paths  wind  up- 


MONTE  LUr.O.  151 

wards  through  the  woods,  and  present  new  views,  each  more 
beautiful  than  the  last.  Scattered  amongst  the  odoriferous 
thickets  are  a  succession  of  chapels,  and  buildings  which 
once  were  hermitages,  for  a  perfect  Thebaid  was  established 
here  in  528  by  S.  Isaac  of  Syria,  and  the  Catholic  Church 
honours  many  saints  who  have  spent  a  portion  of  their  lives 
here.  At  the  top  of  the  mountain,  in  a  wood  of  chestnuts, 
is  the  pilgrimage  Church  of  La  Madonna  delk  Grazie.  The 
principal  convent  is  that  of  S.  Giuliano.  No  more  beautiful 
or  heaven-inspiring  retreat  could  well  be  found  than  the  cells 
in  this  flowery  mountain-forest.  Michael- Angelo,  on  Sept. 
18,  1556,  wrote  to  Vasari : 

"  I  have  just  been  visiting,  with  no  small  fatigue  and  expense,  but 
with  great  pleasure,  the  hermitages  of  the  mountain  of  Spoleto.  I  have 
scarcely  brought  the  half  of  myself  back  to  Rome,  because  one  only 
finds  true  liberty,  peace,  and  happiness  amid  such  scenes." 

Those  who  stay  long  in  Spoleto  (and  it  is  a  delightful 
summer  residence)  will  find  much  to  interest  them  in  the 
many  minor  works  of  Lo  Spagna  (ob.  1526),  scattered  through 
the  smaller  churches  and  the  desecrated  convents  both  in  the 
town  and  in  solitary  situations  in  the  neighbouring  forests. 
This  painter,  whose  real  name  was  Giovanni  Spagnuolo  di 
Pietro,  was  a  friend  and  fellow-pupil  of  Raffaelle  in  the 
school  of  Perugino,  and  his  works  follow  close  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Raffaelle  and  Pinturicchio.  He  was  made  a 
citizen  of  Spoleto,  where  he  married  and  spent  the  chief  part 
of  his  life. 

The  most  interesting  works  of  Lo  Spagna  are  in  the  poor 
village  of  6".  Giacomo^  four  miles  from  Spoleto,  on  the  way 
to  the  temple  of  the  Clitumnus.  Here  there  is  a  small 
church  dedicated  to  St.  James  of  Galitzin.     The  frescoes  in 


152  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

his  honour  for  the  most  part  relate  to  a  picturesque  legend 
in  the  life  of  the  Apostle. 

**  There  was  a  certain  German,  who  with  his  wife  and  son  went  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  St.  James  of  Compostella.,  Having  come  as  far  as  Torlosa, 
they  lodged  at  an  inn  there ;  and  the  host  had  a  fair  daughter,  who, 
looking  on  the  son  of  the  pilgrim,  a  handsome  and  a  graceful  youth,, be- 
came deeply  enamoured,  but  he,  being  virtuous,  and,  moreover,  on  his 
way  to  a  holy  shrine,  refused  to  listen  to  her  allurements. 

'*  Then  she  thought  how  she  might  be  avenged  for  this  slight  put  upon 
her  charms,  and  hid  in  his  wallet  her  father's  silver  drinking-cup.  The 
next  morning,  no  sooner  were  they  departed,  than  the  host,  discovering 
his  loss,  pursued  them,  accused  them  before  the  judge,  and  the  cup 
being  found  in  the  young  man's  wallet,  he  was  condemned  to  be  hung, 
and  all  they  possessed  was  confiscated  to  the  host. 

' '  Then  the  afflicted  parents  pursued  their  way  lamenting,  and  made 
their  prayer  and  their  complaint  before  the  altar  of  the  blessed  Saint 
lago  ;  and  thirty-six  days  afterwards,  as  they  returned  by  the  spot  where 
their  son  hung  on  the  gibbet,  they  stood  beneath  it,  weeping  and  lament- 
ing bitterly.  Then  the  son  spoke  and  said,  *  O  my  mother,  O  my  father  ! 
do  not  lament  for  me,  for  I  have  never  been  in  better  cheer  :  the  blessed 
apostle  James  is  at  my  side,  sustaining  me  and  filling  me  with  celestial 
comfort  and  joy  ! '  The  parents,  being  astonished,  hastened  to  the 
judge,  who  at  that  moment  was  seated  at  table,  and  the  mother  called 
out,  *  Our  son  lives  ! '  The  judge  mocked  at  them  :  *  What  sayest  thou, 
good  woman  ?  thou  art  beside  thyself !  If  thy  son  lives,  so  do  these 
fowls  in  my  dish.'  And  lo!  scarcely  had  he  uttered  the  words,  when 
the  fowls  (being  a  cock  and  a  hen)  rose  up  full-feathered  in  the  dish,  and 
the  cock  began  to  crow,  to  the  great  admiration  of  the  judge  and  his 
attendants.  Then  the  judge  rose  up  from  table  hastily,  and  called 
together  the  priests  and  the  lawyers,  and  they  went  in  procession  to  the 
gibbet,  took  down  the  young  man,  and  restored  him  to  his  parents  ;  and 
the  miraculous  cock  and  hen  were  placed  under  the  protection  of  the 
Church,  where  they  and  their  posterity  long  flourished  in  testimony  of 
this  stupendous  miracle. 

"In  the  vault  of  the  apsis  is  the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin;  she 
kneels,  attired  in  white  drapery  flowered  with  gold,  and  the  whole 
group,  though  inferior  in  power,  appeared  to  me  in  delicacy  and  taste 
far  superior  to  the  fresco  of  Fra  Filippo  Lippi  at  Spoleto,  from  which 
Passavant  thinks  it  is  borrowed.  Immediately  under  the  Coronation,  in 
the  centre,  is  a  figure  of  St.  James  as  patron  saint,  standing  with  his 


TEMPLE  OF  THE  CLITUMNUS.  153 

pilgrim's  staff  in  one  hand  and  the  Gospel  in  the  other ;  his  dress  is  a 
yellow  tunic  with  a  blue  mantle  thrown  over  it.  In  the  compartment  on 
the  left,  the  youth  is  seen  suspended  on  the  gibbet,  while  St.  James  with 
his  hand  under  his  feet  sustains  him  ;  the  father  and  mother  look  up  at 
him  in  astonishment.  In  the  compartment  to  the  right,  we  see  the  judge 
seated  at  dinner,  attended  by  his  servants,  one  of  whom  is  bringing  in  a 
dish  :  the  two  pilgrims  appear  to  have  just  told  their  story,  and  the  cock 
and  hen  liave  risen  up  in  the  dish." — Jameso)Cs  Sacred  Art. 

Three  miles  beyond  S.  Giacomo,  the  road  to  Foligno 
reaches  the  hamlet  of  Le  Vene,  and  passes  immediately  be- 
hind a  small  building  which  is  none  other  than  that  which 
poets  have  described  as  the  Temple  of  the  CUtumnus. 

The  "  Temple  "  stands  on  a  steep  bank  overlooking  the 
little  river,  here  still  called  CiifumnOj  which  has  its  source 
near  this,  the  name  Le  Vene  being  derived  from  the  numer- 
ous springs  or  vents  of  water  by  which  it  is  formed.  In 
classical  times,  as  now,  it  was  famous  for  its  clear  water,  and 
the  beauty  of  the  cattle  on  its  banks  : 

**  Hinc  albi,  Clitumne,  greges,  et  maxima  taurus 
Victima,  saepe  tuo  perfusi  flumine  sacro, 
Romanos  ad  templa  Deum  duxere  triumphos." 

Virgily  Geo.  ii.  196. 

"  Qui  formosa  suo  Clitumnus  flumina  luce 
Integit,  et  niveos  abluit  unda  boves." 

Propert.  ii.  El.  xix.  25. 

**  Et  lavat  ingentem  perfundens  flumine  sacro 
Clitumnus  taurum." 

Sil.  Hal.  viii.  452. 

*•  Laeta  sed  ostendens  Clitumni  pascua  sanguis 
Iret,  et  a  grandi  cervix  ferienda  ministro" 

yiw.  Sat.  xii.  13. 

**  Quin  et  Clitumni  sacras  victoribus  undas, 
Candida  quae  Latiis  praebent  armenta  triumphis, 
Visere  cura  fuit." 

Claud,  vi.  Cons,  Hon.  506. 


154  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

'*  nee  si  vacuet  Mevania  valles, 
Aut  prsestent  niveos  Clitumna  novalia  tauros, 
Sufficiam. " 

Stat.  Sylv.  i.  4. 

We  learn  from  Pliny  that  this  spot  was  not  only  one  of 
local  veneration,  but  was  visited  by  strangers.  The  Emperor 
Caligula  travelled  here  for  this  purpose.*  The  building 
which  still  exists  was  probably  a  successor  of  one  of  the 
shrines  or  chapels  (sacella)  mentioned  by  Pliny,  which  were 
scattered  over  the  hill-side  above  the  temple  of  the  river- 
god.  The  little  existing  building  is  of  the  Lower  Empire. 
It  will  be  interesting  to  read  upon  the  spot  the  description 
of  C.  Pliny,  written  to  his  friend  Romanus  : 

"Have  you  ever  seen  the  sources  of  the  Clitumnus  ?  If  not  (and  I 
think,  if  you  had,  you  would  have  mentioned  it  to  me),  go  and  see  them. 
I  saw  them  not  long  since,  and  I  regret  that  I  did  not  see  them  sooner. 
There  is  a  rising  ground  of  moderate  elevation,  thickly  shaded  with 
ancient  cypresses.  At  the  foot  of  this,  a  fountain  gushes  out  in  several 
unequal  veins,  and  having  made  its  escape,  forms  a  pool,  whose  broad 
bosom  expands,  so  pure  and  crystal-like,  that  you  may  count  small 
pieces  of  money  that  you  throw  in,  and  the  shining  pebbles.  Thence  it 
is  impelled  forward,  not  by  the  declivity  of  the  ground,  but,  as  it  were, 
by  its  own  abundance  and  weight.  Though  yet  at  its  source,  it  is 
already  a  spacious  river,  capable  of  bearing  vessels,  which  it  transports 
in  every  direction,  even  such  as  come  upwards,  and  strive  against  the 
stream  ;  it  is  so  powerful  that  oars  give  no  assistance  downwards,  but 
upwards  oars  and  poles  can  scarce  get  tne  better  of  the  current.  It  is  a 
delightful  recreation  to  those  who  amuse  themselves  with  floating  upon 
its  surface,  to  exchange  alternately,  as  they  alter  their  direction,  labour 
for  ease,  and  ease  for  labour.  Some  parts  of  the  banks  are  clothed  with 
the  wild  ash,  some  with  poplars,  and  the  transparent  river  gives  back 
the  image  of  every  one  of  them  distinctly,  as  if  they  were  submerged 
beneath  its  waters.  The  coldness  of  the  water  is  equal  to  that  of  snow, 
and  its  colour  nearly  so.  Hard  by,  is  an  ancient  and  venerable  temple. 
There  stands  the  God  Clitumnus  himself,  not  naked,  but  adorned  with 

*  Suet.  Cal.  43. 


TEMPLE  OF  THE  CLITUMNUS.  155 

the  prcetexta.  The  oracles  which  are  delivered  there  indicate,  not  only 
the  presence,  but  the  prophetic  power  of  the  deity.  Several  chapels  are 
scattered  about  the  neighbourhood,  each  containing  an  image  of  the 
god  ;  each  has  a  sanctity,  and  each  a  divinity  peculiar  to  itself ;  some 
also  contain  fountains.  For  besides  the  Clitumnus,  who  is,  as  it  were, 
the  father  of  all  the  rest,  there  are  some  smaller  streams,  distinct  at  the 
source,  but  which  mingle  with  the  river  as  soon  as  it  passes  the  bridge. 
There  ends  everything  sacred  and  profane.  Above  the  bridge,  naviga- 
tion only  is  allowed  ;  below  it,  swimming  is  permitted.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  Hispella,  to  whom  Augustus  made  a  present  of  the  place,  supply 
a  bath  and  an  inn  for  the  accommodation  of  the  public.  Along  the  banks 
are  a  number  of  villas,  to  which  the  beauty  of  the  stream  has  given  birth. 
In  a  word,  there  is  nothing  with  which  you  will  not  be  delighted.  P'or 
you  may  even  indulge  your  propensity  for  study,  and  may  read  many 
inscriptions  written  by  different  persons  on  every  pillar  and  every  wall, 
in  honour  of  the  fountain  and  the  god.  Many  you  will  applaud,  some 
you  will  laugh  at,  though,  in  fact,  such  is  your  good  nature,  you  will 
laugh  at  none.     Farewell." — C.  Plin.  Lib.  viii.  Ep.  8,  Eustace's  Trans. 

The  scene  is  still  one  of  unspoilt  loveliness,  as  when  Byron 
visited  it : 

**  But  thou,  Clitumnus!  in  thy  sweetest  wave 

Of  the  most  living  crystal  that  was  e'er 

The  haunt  of  river  nymph,  to  gaze  and  lave 

Her  limbs  where  nothing  hid  them,  thou  dost  rear 

Thy  grassy  banks  whereon  the  milk-white  steer 

Grazes  ;  the  purest  god  of  gentle  waters  ! 

And  most  serene  of  aspect,  and  most  clear  ; 

Surely  that  stream  was  unprofaned  by  slaughters — 
A  mirror  and  a  bath  for  Beauty's  youngest  daughters  ! 

•'  And  on  thy  happy  shore  a  temple  still. 

Of  small  and  delicate  proportion,  keeps. 

Upon  a  mild  declivity  of  hill, 

Its  memory  of  thee  ;  beneath  it  sweeps 

Thy  current's  calmness ;  oft  from  out  it  leaps 

The  finny  darter  with  the  glittering  scales, 

Who  dwells  and  revels  in  thy  glassy  deeps  ; 

While,  chance,  some  scattei'd  water-lily  sails 
Down  where  the  shallower  wave  still  tells  its  bubbling  tales." 

Childe  Harold. 


156  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

About  2  J  miles  beyond  the  Temple  of  the  Clitumnus  is 
T?'evi  (a  station  on  the  railway),  the  ancient  Trebia,  a  moun- 
tain-town occasionally  resorted  to  by  Romans  in  summer, 
and  one  of  the  steepest  places  imaginable,  each  house  ap- 
parently rising  on  the  hill-side  almost  where  the  roof  of  the 
last  comes  to  an  end.  It  deserves  visiting  on  account  of  the 
pictures  in  its  churches. 

La  Madotina  delle  Lagrime  contains  a  large  fresco  of  the 
Adoration  of  the  Magi  by  Ferugino.  In  the  same  church  are 
a  set  of  frescoes  by  Lo  Spagna,  among  which  Kugler  notices 
the  Deposition  as  of  pecuHar  excellence. 

*'In  a  lunette,  S.  Ubaldo  in  benediction  sits  between  rows  of  kneel- 
ing monks,  whilst  an  angel  holds  up  an  open  book  out  of  which  he 
reads,  and  others  attend  with  his  crozier  and  mitre.  In  the  Deposi- 
tion from  the  Cross,  beneath  the  lunette,  as  in  the  chief  personage  of  the 
lunette  itself,  a  distant  reminiscence  of  Raphael  may  be  discovered.  The 
Deposition  is  taken  from  that  in  the  Boi-ghese  Palace  at  Rome,  or  from 
one  of  the  numerous  drawings  sketched  previous  to  its  completion.  On 
the  pilasters  of  the  altar,  two  canvasses  contain  S.  Catherine  of  Alex- 
andria and  S.  Cecilia.  Had  not  Spagna  renewed  his  companionship 
with  Raphael  at  Rome,  he  could  scarcely  have  done  anything  so  redo- 
lent of  the  great  master." — Crawe  and  Cavalcaselle. 

The  Church  of  S.  Marfiuo,  outside  the  town,  has  a  fine 
altar-piece  hy  Lo  Spagna,  executed  about  15 12.  It  repre- 
sents the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  with  S.S.  Mary  Magda. 
len  and  Catherine  in  the  foreground,  and  in  the  distance  a 
view  of  the  convent  of  S.  Francesco  at  Assisi.  In  the  dead- 
house  of  the  adjoining  convent  is  an  Assumption  by  the 
same  artist.  A  lunette  of  the  Virgin  and  Child  in  the  church 
is  a  beautiful  work  of  Tiberio  d' Assisi. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


IN  THE  ABRUZZI  (ABRUZZO  ULTERIORE  II.) 

(This  tour  is  easily  made  from  Rome,  and  will  soon  be  rendered 
extremely  simple  by  the  new  lines  of  railway,  branching  off  from 
Terni.  The  excursion  however  should  be  postponed  at  least  till 
April,  as  the  snow  lies  long  in  the  Abruzzi,  or  it  may  be  more 
pleasantly  taken  in  October.  The  reports  of  brigands  and  alarming 
adventures  are  almost  entirely  unfounded.  No  difficulties  attend  the 
tour.  The  roads  are  excellent,  the  food  generally  very  tolerable,  and  the 
inhabitants  simple  and  hospitable  to  a  degree,  and  uniformly  kind  and 
civil  to  strangers.  The  mediaeval  costumes  are  preserved,  and  are  highly 
picturesque. 

The  Abruzzi  have  hitherto  been  unspoilt  by  a  rush  of  English  and 
Americans,  and  the  old  Italian  scale  of  prices  is  maintained.  A  journey 
of  8  or  9  hours  by  diligence  seldom  costs  more  than  5  or  6  francs.  Five 
soldi  are  considered  a  handsome  buonamano  for  a  guide  or  facchino  for 
a  short  distance.  In  the  hotels,  rooms  cost  from  i  to  2  francs,  dinner 
from  2  to  25  francs,  breakfast  from  60  to  85  centimes.  At  present  it  is 
quite  unnecessary  to  make  a  bargain  at  the  hotels,  and  would  only  lead 
to  suspicion  and  mistrust. 

Those  who  travel  in  the  Abruzzi  should  be  as  unencumbered  as 
possible  with  luggage,  for  which  there  is  little  or  no  accommodation  in 
the  carriages  or  diligences. 

The  Abruzzi  consist  of  three  provinces.  Abruzzo  Ulteriore,  whose 
principal  towns  are  Ascoli,  'J'eramo,  and  Civita  di  Penne  ;  Abruzzo 
Ulteriore  II.,  which  includes  part  of  the  Sabina,  and  contains  Civita 
Ducale,  Aquila,  Solmona,  and  Avezzano ;  and  Abruzzo  Citeriore, 
which  includes  the  country  around  Chieti,  Lanciano,  and  Vasto.  It  is 
only  with  the  second  of  these,  whose  mountains  are  visible  from 
Rome,  that  we  are  now  concerned.  It  is  most  easily  approached 
tlirough  the  Sabine  hills  below  Rieti.     There  are  two  ways  of  reaching 


:58 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


Rieti  from  Rome  by  a  public  conveyance.  First,  by  the  diligence 
which  meets  the  quick  train  from  Rome  to  Florence  at  the  station 
of  Corese,  and  arrives  at  Rieti  at  3  p.  m.,  having  halted  for  2 
hours  at  a  wayside  inn  ;  and,  secondly,  by  the  diligence  which  leaves 
the  market-place  at  Terni  at  12,  on  the  arrival  of  the  same  train,  and 
reaches  Rieti  at  5  p.  m. ,  without  any  halt.  A  place  in  the  diligence 
from  Terni  to  Rieti  costs  3  francs  ;  a  two -horse  carriage  for  the  same, 
16  francs.) 

IT  is  a  long  ascent  from  Terni  to  Papigno,  above  the  Falls. 
Thence,  avoiding  Pie  di  Luco  with  its  lake  and  echo,  the 
road  follows  the  upland  plain  of  the  Velino,  filled  with  vines 
trained  upon  the  white  mulberry-trees.  The  country  is  won- 
derfully rich.  Cicero  *  speaks  of  it  as  the  Rheatine  Tempe. 
The  banks  of  the  river  were  the  "  Rosea  rura  Velini "  of 
Virgil.t  The  hills  are  limestone,  and  consequently  incapable 
of  fine  forms,  and  there  is  little  beauty,  till  we  reach  Rieti 


Roman  Bridge,  Rieti.  * 

high  in  the  upland,  1396  feet  above  the  sea,  but  close  under 

*  Ad  Att.  iv,  15.  t  -^n.  vii.  712. 


RIETI. 


159 


a  mountain-side,  surrounded  by  walls  and  approached  by  a 
handsome  passeggiata.  The  town  is  very  flourishing,  and  a 
large  Beet-root  Sugar-Manufactory  has  been  established 
there.  The  Croce  Bianca  is  a  clean  and  very  tolerable  hotel, 
also  La  Campana  in  the  piazza. 

The  Roman  remains  are  the  Bridge  over  the  Velino,  and 
a  handless  and  footless  statue  called  Cicero,  in  one  of  the 
streets.  Ancient  Rheate  was  celebrated  for  its  mules  and 
asses,  extolled  by  Strabo,  and  by  Varro  in  his  dialogues  De 
Re  Rustica.  Silius  Italicus  pretends  that  the  town  derived 
its  name  from  Rheate,  the  Latin  Cybele  : 


.  .  magnaeque  Rheate  dicatum 
Coelicolum  matri." 


viu.  417. 


Palazzo  Vincentini,  Rieti. 


The  principal  Church  of  5.  Maria  has  a  wide  portico.    It 
contains  a  statue  of  S.  Barbara  by  Bernini.      There  is  a 


i6o  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

pleasant  view  from  the  platform  outside,  close  to  which  is 
the  beautiful  Palazzo  Vinceiititii  with  open  loggias,  a  most 
graceful  work  of  Vignola.  The  churches  of  5.  Fieiro  and  S. 
Agostino  have  fine  doorways,  and  6".  Pietro  Mantine  a  richly- 
carved  wooden  roof  The  charm  of  Rieti  depends  entirely 
upon  its  pure  air  and  surrounding  vineyards. 

*'  The  Queen  of  the  Sabine  land,  as  its  inhabitants  sometimes  proudly 
call  it,  is  built  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  in  a  rich  plain  full  of  vine- 
yards. The  swift  Velino  rushes  by  the  town,  which  is  a  nest  of  quaint 
red-roofed  houses  guarded  by  several  towers  and  a  citadel.  No  more 
joyous  spot  is  there  on  earth  than  Rieti  in  the  vintage  season,  when  all 
the  population  swarms  forth  from  their  hive  to  gather  in  the  rich  purple 
and  amber  clusters  and  heap  them  into  waggons  drawn  by  great  meek- 
eyed  oxen,  or  pile  them  up  in  panniers  on  the  backs  of  asses,  which  the 
children  have  crowned  with  leafy  garlands  snatched  from  the  vines. 
Half-naked  boys,  graceful  as  fawns  and  brown  as  satyrs,  perch  them- 
selves in  the  trees  to  which  the  vines  cling,  and  throw  down  the  grapes 
with  jest  and  song  to  the  laughing  girls  below  :  matrons  in  picturesque 
red  boddice  and  snowy  head-gear  superintend  ;  children  frolic  round 
and  steal  grapes  ;  spare  and  swarthy  men  complete  the  scene,  and  over 
all  is  a  turquoise  sky  —  radiant  sunshine  —  everywhere  laughter  and 
song  ! 

*'  But  in  winter  Rieti  assumes  a  wilder  aspect  ;  sudden  storms  dash 
upon  it  and  turn  the  clear  Velino  into  a  roaring  torrent  which  sweeps 
wildly  away  all  that  falls  on  its  surface,  and  tears  at  the  banks  as  if  it 
would  drag  them  down  after  the  large  stones  that  it  rolls  along  its  bed." 
— Mademoiselle  Mori, 

(From  Rieti,  a  very  interesting  excursion  on  foot  or  on 
horseback  may  be  made  (i6  miles)  to  Lionessa,  situated 
under  the  mountain  of  the  same  name,  and  rich  in  Gothic 
churches  and  fragments  of  domestic  architecture. 

Six  miles  further,  near  the  source  of  the  Nar,  is  Norcia, 
the  ancient  Nursia.  Here  Vespasia  Polla,  mother  of  the 
Emperor  Vespasian,  was  born.     The  family  had  property 


AMATRICE.  l6i 

near  this,  called  Vespasiae,*  a  memorial  of  which  exists  in 
the  name  Monte  Vespio.  Far  more  interesting  natives  of 
Norcia  were  S.  S.  Benedict  and  Scholastica.  The  place  is 
said  to  be  dangerous  from  the  brigand-tendencies  of  its 
population,  and  it  can  scarcely  be  reached  in  winter  from 
the  snow.     Virgil  speaks  of  the  coldness  of  its  cUmate  : 

'*  Qui  Tiberim  Fabarimque  bibunt,  quos  frigida  misit 
Nursia." — iEn.  vii.  715. 

and  Silius  Italicus, — 

**  nee  non  habitata  pruinis 
Nursia." — viii.  418. 

Twelve  miles  hence  by  a  bridle-path,  is  Amatrice,  with 
Gothic  churches,  and  paintings  by  its  especial  artist  Cola  di 
Amatrice.  Eight  miles  from  this,  and  two  from  Civita  Reale, 
is  the  village  of  Collicelli^  close  to  which  is  the  church  of  ^S". 
Silvestro  in  Farlacrino,  marking  the  site  of  Falacrinum,  and 
with  ruins  close  by,  supposed  to  be  those  of  the  Flavian 
palace,  where  Vespasian  was  bom,  and  to  visit  which  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  returning. 

*•  Locum  incunabulorum  assidue  frequentavit,  manente  villa  qualis 
fiierat  olim,  ne  quid  scilicet  oculorum  consuetudini  deperiret." 

SuetonitiSy  viii.  2. 

The  hamlet  of  San  Vittorino  occupies  the  site  of  Amiter- 
num^  which  sent  a  cohort  to  the  assistance  of  Turnus 
against  ^neas. 

**  Ecce,  Sabinorum  prisco  de  sanguine,  magnum 
Agmen  agens  Clausus,  magnique  ipse  agminis  instar  ; 


Una  ingens  Amitema  cohors,  priscique  Quirites." 

^i^gHy  -^n.  vii.  706. 

•  Suet.  Vesp.  c.  i. 
X^OL.    II.  11 


i62  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  modern  name  is  derived  from  a  martyr-bishop,  buried 
in  its  church.     Sallust  was  bom  at  Amiternum.) 

The  road  to  Aquila  is  most  dreary.  It  enters  the  moun- 
tains at  Civita  Ducale,  where  there  is  a  picturesque  piazza 
with  a  fountain,  and  two  remarkable  churches,  one  with  a 
fine  Lombard  doorway,  the  other  with  a  beautiful  rose 
window.  The  place  was  founded  in  1308,  by  Robert,  Duke 
of  Calabria. 

(Fearless  pedestrians  may  make  a  wild  but  interesting 
excursion  from  hence  to  the  remains  of  the  castle  of  Petrella, 
famous  for  the  sufferings  of  Beatrice  Cenci*  in  the  i6th 
century. 

*  *  That  savage  rock  the  Castle  of  Petrella, 
'Tis  safely  wall'd,  and  moated  round  about : 
Its  dungeons  under-ground,  and  its  thick  towers, 
Never  told  tales :  though  they  have  heard  and  seen 
What  might  make  dumb  things  speak. " 

Shelley. 

The  village  of  Torano,  in  the  same  direction,  has  remains 
of  Cyclopean  walls,  supposed  to  belong  to  the  Tiora  of 
Dionysius,  and  to  the  place  called  Thyra  in  the  '  Martyro- 
logium  Romanum,'  where  S.  Anatolia  was  martyred  under 
Decius.) 

There  is  nothing  more  of  interest  till  we  reach  the  Bagni 
di  Faterno,  some  sulphuric  springs  with  a  strong  smell,  boil- 
ing up  close  on  the  right  of  the  road.  These  were  the 
Aquae  Cutiliae,  annually  used  by  Vespasian,  and  here  he 
died,  A.  D.  79,  perhaps  in  the  Roman  palace  of  which  the 
ruins  remain  upon  the  left. 

*'  At  Cutiliae,  though  his  disorder  much  increased,  and  he  injured  him- 
self by  too  free  use  of  the  cold  waters,  Vespasian  nevertheless  attended  to 

*  See  Walks  in  Rome,  voi.  i. 


ANTRODOCO.  163 

the  despatch  of  business,  and  even  gave  audience  to  ambassadors  in  his 
bed.  At  last,  being  v*y  ill,  he  cried  out,  '  An  Emperor  ought  to  die 
standing  upright.'  In  endeavouring  to  rise,  he  died  in  the  arms  of  those 
who  were  assisting  him,  upon  the  eighth  of  the  calends  of  July  (June 
24),  being  sixty-nine  years,  one  month,  and  seven  days  old." 

Suetonius. 

Varro  considered  the  Lacus  Cutiliae  as  the  centre — 
"  umbilicus  " —  of  Italy.  The  pool  which  formerly  existed 
here  had  a  floating  island,  described  by  Dionysius  as  '*  four 
hundred  feet  in  diameter,"  formed  by  the  incrustation  of 
carbonate  of  lime.  The  Lake  was  consecrated  to  Victory 
(Vacuna  ?),  and  was  considered  so  sacred,  that  no  one  was 
allowed  to  approach  it,  except  on  certain  festivals. 

Jolting  through  the  narrow  street  of  Borgo  VelinOy  where 
the  houses  almost  meet  overhead,  we  reach  Antrodoco,  a 
dull  town,  more  than  half  destroyed  a  few  years  ago  by  an 
earthquake,  in  which  a  great  portion  of  the  inhabitants  were 
killed.  On  the  hill  above  aire  fragments  of  a  castle  of  the 
Vitelli.  This  was  the  station  Interocrea  on  the  Via  Salaria, 
and  was  first  destroyed  by  the  people  of  Aquila  in  1364. 

It  is  a  dismal  country  of  barren  hill-sides  till  we  come  in 
sight  of  Aquila,  which  occupies  a  platform  rising  above  the 
plain,  with  mountains  all  around.  On  the  left  is  the  Gran 
Sasso  d'  Italia  with  its  twin  peaks  of  perpetual  snow  ;  on  the 
right  is  Rocca  di  Mezzo,  and,  beyond  it,  the  grand  outline 
of  La  Maiella. 

Aquila  "La  Roma  degli  Abruzzi"  {Locanda  del  Sole, 
good,  reasonable,  and  clean)  is  a  memorial  of  the  great 
Emperor  Frederick  II.  His  idea  was  to  make  it  the  capital 
of  Italy,  one  of  the  most  important  places  in  the  world,  and 
he  built  a  grand  palace  here.  But  his  death  cut  short  all 
his  projects,  and  left  only  the  skeleton  of  his  intentions. 


i64  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  mountains  around  Aquila  are  vast,  but  the  situation 
is  bare  and  desolate,  and  almost  devoid  of  vegetation.  It 
has  eight  months  of  pitiless  winter,  and  four  months  of 
scorching,  life-blasting  summer.  Its  rocks,  its  soil,  its 
churches,  are  riven  and  rifted  by  constant  earthquakes,  for 
even  now  nature  suddenly  often  sets  all  the  bells  ringing 
and  the  clocks  striking,  and  makes  fresh  chasms  in  the  old 
yellow  walls.  In  the  streets,  low  two-storied  cottages  often 
stand  side  by  side  with  handsome  palaces,  and  few  of  the 
churches  remain  entire.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  God-forsaken 
look  of  everything,  there  is  a  sort  of  ghastly  poetry  about 
Aquila,  and  there  are  many  who  will  find  a  strange  interest, 
and  experience  many  new  sensations,  on  its  tawny  hills, 
and  amid  its  deserted  buildings. 

,  **E  r  Aquila,  citta  deg)i  Abruzzi  fra  altissimi  monti  posta,  e  dalle 
rovine  de'luoghi  convicini  tanto  cresciuta,  che  di  uomini,  di  armi,  di 
richezze  era  la  prima  riputata  dopo  Napoli." 

Porzio. 

Of  the  ninety  churches  which  once  existed  here,  a  vast 
number,  or  portions  of  them,  remain. 

S.  Bernardino  (reached  from  the  hotel  by  the  Via 
Principe  Umberto  and  crossing  the  Corso),  rises  aloft  in  the 
face  of  the  snow,  with  a  stately  front  by  Cola  da  Amatrice 
(1525-42).  On  the  right,  is  the  tomb  of  the  saint,  covered 
with  reliefs  by  Silvestro  Salviati  (1505). 

S.  Bernardino,  a  native  of  Massa  near  Siena,  was  born  in  1380,  of 
the  noble  family  of  the  Albizeschi.  He  was  of  great  beauty  and  stately 
presence'.  At  seventeen  he  began  to  devote  himself  to  work  in  the  hos- 
pitals, and  ruined  his  health  by  his  self-sacrifice  during  the  plague  at 
Siena.  At  twenty-three  he  became  a  Franciscan  monk,  and  hencefor- 
ward his  life  was  almost  entirely  that  of  an  itinerant  preacher.  "  Of  the 
wonderful  success  of  his  sermons,  many  striking  anecdotes  are  told.    His 


AQUTLA.     -  165 

hearers  were  not  only  for  the  moment  affected  and  melted  into  tears, 
but  in  many  instances  a  perfect  regeneration  of  heart  and  life  seems  to 
have  taken  place  through  his  influence.  Those  who  had  defrauded, 
made  restitution  ;  those  who  owed  money,  hastened  to  pay  their  debts  ; 
those  who  had  committed  injustice,  were  eager  to  repair  it.  Enemies 
were  seen  to  embrace  each  other  in  his  presence  ;  gamblers  flung  away 
their  cards  ;  the  women  cut  off  their  hair,  and  threw  down  their  jewels 
at  his  feet ;  wherever  he  came,  he  preached  peace ;  and  the  cities  of 
Tuscany,  then  distracted  by  factions,  were  by  his  exhortations  reconciled 
and  tranquillized,  at  least  for  a  time.  Above  all,  he  set  himself  to  heal, 
as  far  as  he  could,  the  mutual  fury  of  the  Guelphs  and  Ghibelines,  who, 
at  that  period,  were  tearing  Italy  to  pieces." 

Throughout  his  whole  life,  S.  Bernardino  despised  worldly  honours 
and  ideas,  and  three  bishoprics  were  pressed  upon  him  in  vain.  He 
founded  the  Order  of  the  Osservanti,  which  not  only  engaged  to  follow, 
\)\xi  followed^  the  strict  rule  of  S.  Francis.  On  May  20,  1444,  he  died 
at  Aquila,  while  on  one  of  his  journeys  as  a  pedestrian  preacher,  and  in 
1450  he  was  canonized  by  Nicholas  V. 

In  almost  all  representations  of  S.  Bernardino,  is  introduced  a  tablet 
with  the  monogram  of  the  Saviour  surrounded  by  golden  rays,  being  a 
device  which  he  invented  that  it  might  be  sold  for  the  maintenance  of 
a  poor  man  whom  he  had  induced  to  abandon  the  sale  of  cards  and  dice. 
— See  yameson's  Monastic  Orders,  and  Butler's  Lives  of  the  Saints,  vol.  v. 

On  the  left  of  the  high  altar  is  the  beautiful  tomb  of 
Beatrice  Camponi :  She  lies  upon  a  richly  decorated 
sarcophagus  and  her  child  below  it.  In  the  second  chapel 
on  the  right  is  a  fine  Assumption  by  Luca  della  Robbia.  The 
second  chapel  on  the  left  has  an  admirable  wrought-iron 
screen. 

The  steps  of  S.  Bernardino  are  used  as  the  cattle-market 
of  Aquila.  Goats  perch  upon  the  higher  part,  sheep  and 
oxen  lie  in  the  sun  on  the  broad  platforms  below.  Descend- 
ing the  stairs  between  the  ruined  chapels  of  a  Via  Crucis, 
we  reach — passing  (left)  a  ruined  Gothic  house — the  Porta  di 
Collemaggio. 

About  half-a-mile  outside  this  gate,  on  a  dust-laden,  wind- 


i66 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


stricken  platform,  is  the  beautiful  church  of  S.  Maria  di 
Collemaggio.  Only  the  front  of  the  original  building  of  c. 
1260  remains — of  white  marble  inlaid  with  red  marble.  It 
has  three  splendidly-wrought  portals  and  three  rose-windows 
above  them.  Over  the  doors  runs  a  beautiful  gallery  of 
wrought-iron,  with  cressets.  Hence,  once  in  every  year,  the 
Bishop  of  Aquila  reads  the  bull  of  Coelestine  V.,  with  the 
advantages  he  conferred  upon  the  town.  On  a  line  with  the 
faQade,  rises  the  low  very  heavy  machicolated  bell-tower. 


S.  Maria  di  Collemaggio,  Aquila. 

The  inside  of  the  church  was  destroyed  by  earthquake  in 
1703  and  has  been  modernized,  but  is  bare  and  desolate  to 
a  degree.  A  curious  series  of  animal-pieces  lines  the  walls, 
introduced  apropos  of  the  saintly  legends  connected  with 
them.  They  are  by  Andrew  Ruter,  a  Flemish  monk,  who 
was  a  pupil  of  Rubens.  In  the  pavement  are  a  number  of 
curious  incised  monuments  of  abbots  and  bishops.  In  this 
church  the  hermit  Coelestine  V.  was  crowned  Pope  in  1294. 

**  Over  his  shaggy  sackcloth  the  hermit  had  put  on  the  gorgeous 
attire  of  the  Pontiff ;  yet  he  would  not  go  to  Perugia  to  receive  the 
homage  of  the  conclave.     Age  and  the  heat  of  the  season  (he  had  been 


AQUILA.  167 

accustomed  to  breathe  the  mountain  air)  would  not  permit  him  to  take 
the  long  unwonted  journey.  He  entered  the  city  of  Aquila  riding  on  an 
ass,  with  a  king  on  each  side  of  him  to  hold  his  bridle.  Some  of  the 
indignant  clergy  murmured  at  this  humiliation  of  the  Papal  majesty  (the 
successor  of  S.  Peter  was  wont  to  ride  a  stately  palfrey),  but  they  sup- 
pressed their  discontent. 

"If  there  had  been  more  splendid,  there  never  was  so  popular  an 
election.  Two  hundred  thousand  spectators  crowded  the  streets.  In 
the  evening  the  Pope  was  compelled  again  and  again  to  come  to  the 
window  to  bestow  his  benediction  ;  and  if  hierarchical  pride  had  been 
offended  at  the  lowliness  of  his  pomp,  it  but  excited  greater  admiration 
in  the  commonalty  ^they  thought  of  Him  who  entered  Jerusalem  '  riding 
on  an  ass's  colt.'  Miracles  confirmed  their  wonder  :  a  boy,  lame  from 
the  womb,  was  placed  on  the  ass  on  which  the  Pope  had  ridden  j  he 
was  restored  to  the  full  use  of  his  limbs. 

"The  Cardinal  Najoleon  Orsini  assisted  at  the  inauguration,  gave  to 
the  Pope  the  scarlet  m  intle,  the  mitre  set  with  gold  and  jewels ;  he  an- 
nounced to  the  peoplr  that  Petei  had  taken  the  name  of  Coelestine  V. 
The  foot  of  the  lowly  hermit  was  kissed  by  kings,  cardinals,  bishops, 
nobles.  He  was  set  on  high  to  he  adored  by  the  people.  The  num- 
bers of  the  clergy  ca  ised  singubr  astonishment;  but  the  cardinals, 
though  reluctant,  wou'd  not  allow  the  coronation  to  proceed  without 
them;  they  came  sing' y  and  in  ui* willing  haste.  Yet  still,  though  all 
assisted  at  the  ceremony,  the  place  of  honour  was  given  to  the  French 
cardinal :  he  anointea  the  now  Pope,  but  the  Pontiff  was  crowned  by 
Matteo  Rosso,  probably  the  elder  ot  the  cardinals  present. 

"A  few  months  showed  that  meekness,  humility,  holiness,  unworld- 
liness,  might  make  a  saint ;  they  were  not  the  virtues  suited  to  a  Pope. 
The  utter  incapacity  of  Ccelestine  for  business  soon  appeared ;  he 
lavished  offices,  dignities,  bishoprics,  with  profuse  hand  ;  he  granted  and 
revoked  grants,  bestowed  benefices,  vacant  or  about  to  be  vacant.  He 
was  duped  by  the  officers  of  his  court,  and  gave  the  same  benefice  over 
and  over  again,  but  the  greater  share  of  all  fell  to  his  brethren  from  the 
Abruzzi.  He  shrank  from  publicity  ;  he  could  only  speak  a  few  words 
of  bad  Latin." — Mil  man's  Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity. 

The  tomb  which  contains  the  body  of  Coelestine,  stolen, 
after  his  canonization,  from  the  cathedral  of  Ferentino,  is  at 
the  end  of  the  left  aisle.  His  skull  is  preserved  here,  secured 
under  eight  keys,  four  of  which  are  in  the  hands  of  the  civil 


1 68 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


authorities.  Once  a  year  it  is  publicly  shown.  Over  the 
left  temple  is  a  square  hole,  said  to  have  been  made  by  the 
nail  by  which  he  was  murdered. 

Besides  these  two  great  churches,  many  others  are  worth 
visiting.  The  causeway  from  the  Collemaggio  leads  to  the 
gate  towards  Solmona,  near  which  is  S.  Marco,  with  a  fine 
Lombard  door.  A  litde  behind,  is  S.  Marcia7io,  also  with  a 
remarkable  door.  Between  this  and  the  Porta  Romana  is 
6".  Doi7ienico,  a  vast  simple  Gothic  church  with  two  admirable 
doorways  ;  and,  close  by,  the  plain  but  picturesque  front  of 
S.  Pietro  di  Sasso.  Several  old  houses  and  convents  near 
this  have  Gothic  fronts,  especially  in  the  Via  Porta  Romana. 
In  Spain,  their  windows  would  be  called  Ajimez.  The  best  of 


S.  Nicolo  d'Anza,  Aquila. 

these  fronts  is  so  ruinous,  that  it  will  soon  be  quite  lost,  if 
pains  are  not  taken  to  preserve  it. 


AQUILA.  169 

Left  of  the  Porta  Romana,  between  it  and  the  Corso,  is 
S.  Nicolo  (TAnza,  beautifully  situated,  with  a  most  picturesque 
gateway  to  its  little  garden.  Near  it,  in  a  square,  is  S.  Sil- 
vestroj  with  a  splendid  rose-window.  Inside  its  west  door 
are  two  frescoes  by  some  very  good  early  Umbrian  master, 
one  pourtraying  the  Virgin  and  Child  throned  with  saints, 
the  other  the  Baptism  of  Constantine — the  emperor  being 
represented  as  Christ.  In  a  street  on  the  right,  beyond  this, 
is  S.  Maria  Paganicay  which  has  a  stately  west  front,  with  a 
rich  doonvay,  approached  by  a  flight  of  steps :  outside  are 
tombs  with  reclining  figures. 

The  tall  tower  which  rises  close  to  the  inn,  and  which  is 
adorned  with  a  grand  eagle — "  Aquila  " — is  a  remnant  of  the 
Palace  of  Margaret  of  Austria,  natural  daughter  of  Charles 


Castle  of  Aquila. 

v.,  and  widow  of  Ottavio  Famese,  who  was  governor  of  tne 
province. 


I70  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

At  the  upper  end  of  the  Corso  is  an  open  space,  beyond 
which  is  the  Citadel^  built  in  1543  on  the  site  of  Frederick's 
palace.  Its  massive  walls  are  guarded  by  a  wide  moat. 
From  its  ramparts  there  is  a  grand  view  of  the  mountains, 
especially  of  the  Gran  Sasso  dltalia. 

The  great  fountain,  called  La  Riviera^  is  very  curious, 
and  dates  from  1272.  It  is  a  quadrangular  court  surrounded 
by  ninety-nine  little  fountains,  in  memory  of  the  different 
communities  which  were  united  to  form  the  city. 

A  diligence,  drawn  by  four  horses  with  their  manes  tied 
up  into  plumes,  took  us  to  Popoli  along  the  dreary  hideous 
road,  which  runs  for  many  hours  through  a  dusty  waste 
between  two  lines  of  parched  mountains.  Our  only  enter- 
tainment was  the  extraordinary  harness  of  the  animals  we 
met,  the  central  horse  being  generally  surmounted  by  a  per- 
fect pagoda  of  brass,  rising  story  above  story,  each  separate 
landing  having  a  peal  of  bells,  with  generally  a  sort  of  little 
windmill  at  the  top  to  keep  off  the  flies,  and  in  front  a  figure 
of  S.  Antonio,  standing  detached,  and  in  an  attitude  of 
benediction.  At  length,  at  the  top  of  a  weary  pass,  we  came 
upon  a  grand  view  over  the  snowy  Maiella,  and  then  began 
to  descend  by  rapid  zig-zags  to  Popoli^  a  small,  crumbling, 
earthquake-stricken  town,  overlooked  by  the  ruined  castle  of 
the  Cantelmi.  The  principal  church  has  a  very  interesting 
fagade.  Its  upper  story  is  of  the  17  th  century,  but  is  sur- 
mounted by  an  old  figure  of  S.  George  on  horseback,  and 
the  lower  story  has  a  curious  rose-window  with  smaller  roses 
springing  out  of  it,  and  a  platform  guarded  by  huge  lions. 
A  tower,  built  by  the  Counts  Resta  of  the  Marsica,  has  been 
half  buried  in  an  earthquake.     The  branch  line  of  railway 


SOLMONA. 


171 


from  Pescara  to  Solmona  runs  through  Popoli,  and  as  the 
town  is  filthy,  we  were  glad  to  take  refuge  at  the  station, 
where  there  is  an  excellent  caffi^,  till  the  train  came  to  carry 
us  the  pleasant  half-hour's  journey  through  the  valley  to 
Solmona.  Here  there  are  three  inns  ;  Albergo  della  Stazione 
(in  the  piazza),  with  a  good  view ;  Albergo  del  Toscano,  per- 
fectly filthy ;  and  the  "  Casa  de  Monsieur  Raffaelle"  43 
Corso  Ovidii.  We  chose  the  last,  and  found  its  owners 
most  civil  and  obliging  ;  and  a  kind  of  rough  comfort,  though 
the  cocks  and  hens  shared  our  sitting-room,  and  fresh  eggs 
were  laid  for  us,  almost  at  our  feet. 

On  approaching  Solmona,  you  pass  out  of  the  desert  into 
a  cultivated  valley,  at  the  end  of  which,  on  an  isolated 
platform  reached  by  viaduct,  is  the  stately  town,  crowned  by 
many  towers  and  backed  by  grand  masses  of  snow.  On  the 
left,  the  monastery  of  Coelestine  is  seen  beneath  the  moun- 
tain, and  his  more  famous  hermitage,  clinging,  eyrie-like,  to 
one  of  its  ridges. 


Solmona. 


Solmona  is  a  perfectly  mediaeval  city,  many  of  its  iron 


1 72  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

balconies  and  Gothic  house-windows  being  worthy  of  the 
best  Venetian  palaces.  Being  the  birth-place  of  Ovid,  the 
principal  street  is  called  Corso  Ovidii,  and  is  adorned  with  a 
poor  statue  of  the  poet,  who  was  tenderly  attached  to  his 
native  city. 

*'  Sulmo  mihi  patria  est,  gelidis  uberrimus  undis." 

Trist,  iv.  9. 

*•  Sulmonis  gelidi,  patrise,  Germanice,  nostras  ; 
Me  miserum,  Scythico  quam  procul  ilia  solo  est." 

Fast.  iv.  81. 

The  Corso  crosses  a  small  square  containing  a  cinque- 
cento  palace,  Casa  Communale,  of  marvellous  beauty, 
adorned  with  statues  of  sainted  popes  and  cardinals  ranged 
along  its  fagade,  between  the  richly-traceried  windows.  In 
one  of  these,  the  pilasters,  which  imitate  palm-trees,  rest 
upon  lions,  while  the  rose  above  is  upheld  by  floating 
angels. 

The  great  piazza,  where  snow  mountains  are  seen  on  all 
sides  above  the  houses,  is  one  of  the  largest  in  Italy,  and  is 
rendered  exceedingly  picturesque  by  the  aqueduct  which 
crosses  its  upper  extremity,  and  beneath  the  arches  of 
which  a  broad  flight  of  steps,  ever  crowded  with  figures, 
descends  from  the  street.  Behind  the  aqueduct,  rises  the 
front  and  the  grand  Gothic  portal  of  6".  Francesco.  The  inside 
of  the  church,  and  its  cloisters,  ruined  by  an  earthquake,  are 
now  used  as  the  market.  Another  church,  S.  Maria  della 
Totnba  has  a  fine  entrance  and  rose-window.  The  daily 
costume  of  the  male  peasantry  is  most  becoming  and 
picturesque,  and  much  like  that  of  Murcia  in  Spain : — 
white  shirts  and  full  breeches  of  white  linen  fastened  close 
at  the  knee,  blue  stockings,  and  an  open  sleeveless  jacket  of 


SOLMONA.  173 

blue  doth,  with  a  scarlet  sash.  On  Palm-Sunday,  when  we 
were  at  Solmona,  tlie  female  costume  was  perfectly  magnifi- 
cent, the  women  wearing  red  cloth  over  their  white /^««/, 
and  a  profusion  of  gold  and  coral  ornaments.  In  preparation 
for  Holy  "Week,  immense  coloured  rosaries  of  sugar  were 
selling,  gaily  decorated  with  feathers  and  ribbons,  and  thus 
religion  was  sweetened,  as  people  were  to  suck  off  a  sugar- 
plum for  every  prayer  they  said. 

We  had  a  steep  and  exhausting  walk  up  to  the  wild 
mountain  cell  where  Ccelestine  V.  lived  as  the  hermit  Pietro 
Murrone  from  1239  to  1294,  and  we  could  not  but  pity  the 
archbishop  and  bishops,  who  in  a  time  of  even  worse  or  no 
foot-paths  scrambled  up  thither  to  announce  his  strange 
election  to  the  Papacy,  and  carry  him  off,  more  like  a 
frightened  wild  beast  than  a  human  being,  to  his  splendid 
coronation  at  Aquila.  No  transition  has  ever  been  more 
extraordinary. 

"Suddenly  a  solitary  monk  was  summoned  from  his  cell,  in  the 
remote  Abruzzi,  to  ascend  the  Pontifical  throne.  The  Cardinal  of  Ostia, 
Latino  Malebranca,  had  admired  the  severe  and  ascetic  virtues  of  Peter 
Murrone,  a  man  of  humble  birth,  but  already,  from  his  extraordinary 
austerities,  held  by  the  people  as  a  man  of  the  highest  sanctity.  He  had 
retired  from  desert  to  desert,  and  still  multitudes  had  tracked  him  out  in 
vast  swarms,  some  to  wonder  at,  some  to  join  his  devout  seclusion.  He 
seemed  to  rival,  if  not  to  outdo,  the  famous  anchorites  of  old.  His  dress 
was  hair-cloth,  with  an  iron  cuirass  ;  his  food  bread  and  water,  with  a 
few  herbs  on  Sunday. 

"  Peter  Murrone  has  left  an  account  of  his  own  youth.  The  brothers 
of  his  Order,  who  took  his  name,  the  Ccelestinians,  vouched  for  its 
authenticity.  His  mother  was  devoutly  ambitious  that  one  of  her  eleven 
children  should  be  dedicated  to  God.  Many  of  them  died,  but  Peter 
fulfilled  her  most  ardent  desires.  His  infancy  was  marked  with  miracles. 
In  his  youth  he  had  learned  to  read  the  Psalter  ;  he  then  knew  not  the 
person  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  nor  of  St.  John.  One  day  they  descended 
bodily  from  a  picture  of  the  Crucifixion,  stood  before  him,  and  sweetly 


1^4'  ^A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

chaunted  portions  of  the  Psalter.  At  the  age  of  twenty  he  went  into  iKc 
desert :  visions  of  Angels  were  ever  round  him,  sometimes  showering 
roses  over  him.  God  showed  him  a  great  stone,  under  which  he  dug  a 
hole,  in  which  he  could  neither  stand  upright,  nor  stretch  his  limbs,  and 
there  he  dwelt  in  all  the  luxury  of  self-torture  among  lizards,  serpents, 
and  toads.  A  bell  in  the  heavens  constantly  sounded  to  summon  him  to 
prayers.  He  was  offered  a  cock,  he  accepted  the  ill-omened  gift ;  for  his 
want  of  faith  the  bell  was  thenceforth  silent.  He  was  encircled  by  a 
crowd  of  followers,  whom  he  had  already  formed  into  a  kind  of  Order 
or  Brotherhood  ;  they  were  rude  illiterate  peasants  from  the  neighbour- 
ing mountains. 

'*  Either  designedly  or  accidentally  the  Cardinal  Malebranca  spoke  of 
the  wonderful  virtues  of  the  hermit,  Peter  Murrone  :  the  weary  Conclave 
liotened  with  interest .  It  was  in  that  perplexed  and  exhausted  state, 
when  men  seize  desperately  on  any  strange  counsel  to  extricate  them- 
selves from  their  difficulty.  .  .  .  Peter  Murrone  was  declared  supreme 
Pontiff  by  unanimous  acclamation. 

"The  place  of  Murrone's  retreat  was  a  cave  in  a  wild  mountain  above 
the  pleasant  valley  of  Solmona.  The  ambassadors  of  the  Conclave 
having  achieved  their  journey  from  Perugia,  with  difficulty  found  guides 
to  conduct  them  to  the  solitude.  As  they  toiled  up  the  rugged  ascent, 
they  were  overtaken  by  the  Cardinal  Peter  Colonna  who  had  followed 
them  without  commission  from  the  rest.  The  cave,  in  which  the  saint 
could  neither  sit  upright  nor  stretch  himself  out,  had  a  grated  window 
with  iron  bai-s,  through  which  he  uttered  his  oracular  responses  to  the 
wondering  people.  None  even  of  the  brethren  of  the  Order  might  pene- 
trate into  the  dark  sanctuary  of  his  austerities.  The  ambassadors  of  the 
Conclave  found  an  old  man  with  a  long  shaggy  beard,  sunken  eyes  over- 
hung with  heavy  brows,  and  lids  swollen  with  perpetual  weeping,  pale 
hollow  cheeks,  and  limbs  meagre  with  fasting :  they  fell  on  their  knees 
before  him,  and  he  before  them. 

•*  So  Peter  Murrone  the  Hermit  saw  before  him,  in  submissive  atti- 
tudes, the  three  prelates,  attended  by  the  official  notaries,  who  an- 
nounced his  election  to  the  Papacy.  He  thought  it  was  a  dream,  and 
for  once  assuredly  there  was  a  profound  and  religious  reluctance  to 
accept  the  highest  dignity  in  the  world.  He  protested  with  tears  his 
utter  inability  to  cope  with  affairs,  to  administer  the  saci-ed  trust,  to  be- 
come the  successor  of  the  Apostle.  The  news  spread  abroad  ;  the 
neighbouring  people  came  hurrying  by  thousands,  delighted  that  they 
were  to  have  a  saint,  and  their  own  sanit,  for  a  Pope.  The  hermit  in 
vain  tried  to  escape ;  he  was  brought  back  with  respectful  force, 
guarded  with  reverential  vigilance.    Nor  was  it  the  common  people  only 


HERMITAGE  OF  PIETRO  MURRONE. 


175 


who  were  thus  moved.  The  King  of  Naples,  accompanied  by  his  son, 
now  in  right  of  his  wife  entitled  King  of  Hungary,  hastened  to  do  hon- 
our to  his  holy  subject,  to  persuade  the  hermit,  who  perhaps  would  be 
dazzled  by  royal  flatteries  into  a  useful  ally,  to  accept  the  proffered  dig- 
nity. The  hermit-pope  was  conducted  from  his  lowly  cave  to  the 
monastery  of  Santo  Spirito,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  He  still  refused 
to  be  invested  in  the  pontifical  robes.  At  length  arrived  the  Cardinal 
Malebranca  :  his  age,  dignity,  character,  and  his  language  urging  the 
awful  responsibility  which  Peter  Murrone  would  incur  by  resisting  the 
manifest  will  of  God,  and  by  keeping  the  Popedom  longer  vacant  (for 
all  of  which  he  would  be  called  to  give  account  on  the  day  of  judgment), 
prevailed  over  the  awe-struck  saint.  Not  the  least  earnest  in  pressing 
him  to  assume  at  once  the  throne  were  his  rude  but  not  so  unambitious 
hermit  brethren  :  they  too  looked  for  advancement,  they  followed  him 
iii  crowds  wherever  he  went." — MilmatCs  Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity, 


HermitaK^e  of  Pietro  Murrone. 

The  mountain  is  savage  to  a  degree,  and  its  pathlets  are 


176  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

guarded  by  huge  sheep-dogs,  against  which  stones  are  the 
only  protection.  Shepherds  sit  contentedly  to  see  you 
devoured,  and  play  prettily  on  their  reed-pipes  as  in  classical 
times.  "  Will  you  come  up  and  show  us  your  pipe,"  we  said 
to  a  boy  in  rags  who  was  sitting  on  a  rock  beneath  us. 
"  Certainly  not,"  he  answered,  with  true  mountain  independ- 
ence, "if  you  want  to  see  it,  you  can  come  down  to  me." 

The  original  cell  of  Pietro  Murrone  is  a  cave,  but,  above 
it,  a  hermitage  in  two  stories  has  been  built  long  ago  and  is 
adorned  with  rude  frescoes.  A  sort  of  brotherhood  of  hermit- 
monks  was  established  here,  and  here  "  the  blessed  Roberto 
de  Salie "  died  in  the  odour  of  sanctity,  having  first  been 
favoured  with  a  vision  of  the  soul  of  Coelestine  in  bliss. 

We  could  not  but  wonder  if  Coelestine  was  at  all  like  the 
poor  hermit,  the  last  of  the  brotherhood — who  still  lingers 
here — utterly  filthy — absolutely  ignorant — coarse,  and  un- 
civihzed.  Yet  with  a  sort  of  rude  courtesy  he  offered  us  the 
poor  hospitality  of  his  smoke-blackened  den.  "  Would  we 
have  an  egg  boiled  or  fried — a  little  black  bread,  not  such 
as  Signori  like.  Ah  no  !  dimque  io  gli  raccomando  a  la  carita 
di  Dior 

Beneath  the  hermitage  is  the  great  monastery  founded  in 
honour  of  5.  Pietro  Celestino,  rather  like  the  Escurial  in  its 
proportions  and  situation.  It  is  ghastly  ugly.  Under  the 
Papal  Government  it  was  a  hospital  and  orphanage.  The 
present  Government  have  turned  out  the  children  and  made 
it  a  prison.  The  church  has  a  picture  of  Coelestine  by 
Raphael  Mengs.  Built  into  a  small  chapel  above  the  con- 
vent, are  a  few  Roman  fragments  from  Corfinium. 

It  is  said  that  Rienzi,  the  last  of  the  Tribunes,  lived  here 
in  retreat  as  a  monk,  when  he  fled  from  Rome,  but  the  her- 


LAGO  DI  SCANNO.  177 

mitage  of  S.  Spirito  in  the  Maiella  is  also  pointed  out  as  the 


A  t*.£.TftYLOf* 


Hermit  of  the  Abruzzi. 

place  where  he  lived  "  come  fraticello,  con  romiti  e  persone 
di  penitenza." 

(An  excursion  may  be  made  (14  miles)  from  Solmona  to 
the  Lago  di  Scanno^  but  it  must  be  performed  partly  on  horse- 
back and  partly  on  foot,  and  in  winter  it  is  impossible  from 

VOL.    II.  12 


178  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  snow,  or  the  swelling  of  the  Sagittario  in  the  narrow  pass 
called  Gli  Stretti  di  S.  Luigi. 

**  The  Lago  di  Scanno  is  really  one  of  the  most  perfectly  beautiful 
spots  in  nature,  and  the  more  so  for  being  in  so  desert  a  place.  Its  dark 
waters  slumber  below  bare  mountains  of  great  height ;  and  their  general 
effect  might  recall  Wast  Water  in  Cumberland,  but  that  every  craggy  hill 
is  of  wilder  and  grander  form.  At  the  upper  end  of  the  lake,  which 
may  be  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length,  an  avenue  of  beautiful  oaks,  dipping 
their  branches  into  the  water,  shades  the  rocky  path,  and  leads  to  a 
solitary  chapel,  the  only  building  in  sight,  save  a  hermitage  on  the 
mountain  beyond.  The  beauty  and  stillness  of  this  remote  lake  are 
most  impressive. 

"  The  costume  of  the  women  of  Scanno  is  extremely  peculiar,  and 
suggests  an  oriental  origin,  particularly  when  (as  is  not  unusually  the 
case  with  the  elder  females)  a  white  handkerchief  is  bound  round  the 
lower  part  of  the  face,  concealing  all  but  the  eyes  and  nose.  In  former 
days,  the  material  of  the  Scannese  dress  was  scarlet  cloth  richly  orna- 
mented with  green  velvet,  gold  lace,  &c.,  the  shoes  of  blue  worked  satin, 
and  the  shoulder-straps  of  massive  silver,  a  luxury  of  vestments  now  only 
possessed  by  a  very  few.  At  present  both  the  skirt  and  bodice  are  of 
black  or  dark  blue  cloth,  the  former  being  extremely  full,  and  the  waist 
very  short  ;  the  apron  is  of  scarlet  or  crimson  stuff. 

"  The  head-dress  is  very  striking  :  a  white  handkerchief  is  surmounted 
by  a  falling  cap  of  dark  cloth,  among  the  poorer  orders  ;  but  of  worked 
purple  satin  with  the  rich,  and  this  again  is  bound  round,  turbanwise,  by 
a  white  or  primrose-coloured  fillet,  striped  with  various  colours,  though, 
excepting  on  festa  days,  the  poor  do  not  wear  this  additional  band. 

"  The  hair  is  plaited  very  beautifully  with  riband  ;  and  the  ear-rings, 
buttons,  necklaces,  and  chains  are  of  silver,  and  in  rich  families  often 
exceedingly  costly." — Lear's  Excursions  in  Italy. 

Another  savage  excursion,  impossible  in  winter  snows,  may 
be  made  from  Solmona,  by  Pettorano,  Rocca  Valloscura, 
and  Roccarasa,  to  Castel  di  Sangro  (so  called  from  its  river), 
a  picturesque  old  town  with  a  castle  of  the  Counts  of  the 
Marsica.  There  is  a  path  hence  through  wild  mountain 
passes,  by  Barrea,  Alfidena,  and  the  Passo  del  Monaco 
over  the  mountain  of  La  Meta,  to  the  pilgrimage-chapel  of 


CORFINIUM.  179 

S.  Maria  del  Canneto.  A  road  also  leads  from  Castel  di 
Sangro  to  hernia^  a  very  interesting  old  town,  with  a  curious 
aqueduct,  a  beautiful  fountain,  and  a  round  church  with  a 
shrine  of  S.S.  Cosmo  and  Damian,  of  great  repute  for  the 
cure  of  disease  in  all  the  neighbouring  country.  Hence  there 
is  a  road  to  Naples  by  Venafro^  where  are  fine  polygonal 
walls  and  an  old  castle  of  the  Caraccioli. 

There  is  a  direct  road,  traversed  by  a  diligence  in  summer, 
from  Solmona  to  Celano  on  the  Lago  Fucino,  which  saves  an 
immense  detour.  It  passes  by  Pentima.  Near  this  are  the 
remains  of  the  ancient  Corfinium^  many  fragments  of  which 
are  built  into  the  curious  Church  of  S.  Pelino,  where  S.  Alex- 
ander I.  is  buried.  But  in  winter  and  spring  this  road  is 
wholly  impassable  from  snow,  and  we  were  reluctantly  com- 
pelled to  return  through  the  moonlight  to  Aquila,  by  the 
diligence  which  leaves  Popoli  at  7  p.m.  and  arrives  at  2  am. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

IN  THE  MARSICA— THE  LAGO  FUCINO. 

THE  morning  after  reaching  Aquila  (March  31)  we 
took  the  Ave?zano  diligence  (9  francs  50  c.)  which 
left  Aquila  at  10  a.  m.  It  was  a  long  ascent  for  several 
hours  after  Aquila,  and  then  we  reached  the  upland  plains  of 
snow.  The  driver  had  many  stories  to  tell  of  the  perils  of 
that  way,  and  how  once  he  and  his  four  horses  were  nearly 
lost,  and  only  rescued  by  a  whole  village  turning  out  at  the 
sound  of  his  alarm  bell.  We  did  not  wonder,  for  the  scenery 
was  that  of  Lapland;  fields,  hedges,  mountain-sides  entirely 
concealed  under  a  snow-mantle,  and  for  hours  our  road  was 
a  mere  track  cut  in  the  snow,  which  rose  in  walls  on  either 
side,  where  it  had  drifted,  to  the  height  of  the  diligence. 

If  they  ceased  talking,  the  coachman  and  the  postal-guard 
sang  in  parts,  and  for  hours,  one  of  the  wild  melancholy 
songs  of  the  Abruzzi. 

"  Sa  vi  digo,  Maria,  dij  vui, 
Povir  amur ! 

V  Anvid  a  le  mie  nossi. — 

Resignurin  ; 

V  Anvid  a  le  mie  nossi. — 

— A  le  vostri  nossi  an  j  van  nent, 
Povir  Amur  ! 


CELANO.  i8i 

Ch'i  sun  titti  le  vostri, 

Resignurin 
Ch'i  sun  titti  le  vostri " 

and  so  on,  through  at  least  fifty  stanzas. 

We  paused  to  change  horses  at  a  dismal  village  in  the 
snow,  Roca  di  Mezzo,  halting  under  a  gateway  so  completely 
out  of  the  perpendicular  from  earthquakes  that  it  requires  a 
buttress  almost  as  big  as  itself  to  keep  it  up. 

At  Canwidoli  the  road  begins  to  descend  into  the 
Marsica  by  a  series  of  frightful  and  unguarded  precipices, 
and,  passing  beneath  a  village  with  the  singular  name  of 
Sant '  Appetite,  emerges  from  the  mountains  at  Celano.  As 
we  approach  this  town  by  a  long  defile,  patches  of  pale  blue 
water  under  the  abrupt  cliffs  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
valley,  indicate  how  beautiful  the  scene  must  have  been, 
before  the  Lago  Fucino,  which  once  completely  filled  the 
intervening  plain,  was  dried  up. 

Celano  itself  has  a  glorious  castle,  rising  in  three  tiers  of 
battlements  and  towers  against  the  mountain-side.  It  was 
built  in  the  time  of  the  unhappy  Countess  Covella  dei 
Ruggieri,  imprisoned  by  her  own  sou  Ruggierotto,  who 
was  anxious  to  seize  her  estates,  and  only  let  out  of  prison 
to  plead  the  cause  of  her  unnatural  oppressor,  and  to 
see  her  property  confiscated  by  Ferdinand  of  Arragon  to  his 
son-in-law  Antonio  Piccolomini,  nephew  of  Pope  Pius  II. 
The  town,  which  has  a  chapel  of  the  Piccolomini  painted  by 
Giulio  Romano,  is  the  birthplace  of  the  Beato  Tomaso  di 
Celano,  who  is  reputed  to  have  written  the  Dies  free,  c.  1250. 

"  Its  situation  is  said  to  be  near  that  of  Clitemum.  Count  Tomaso  of 
Celano  appears  to  have  been  a  turbulent  subject  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick  II.,  who,  in  1223,  took  and  destroyed  the  town,  exiling  its 


1 82  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

inhabitants  to  Calabria,  Sicily,  and  Malta  ;  whence  they  returned,  and 
rebuilt  their  dwellings  in  the  following  reign.  There  is  a  poetical  tra- 
dition of  a  palace  in  the  old  town,  containing  a  marble  staircase  famous 
for  curing  anybody  who  was  in  love,  by  the  simple  remedy  of  walking  to 
the  top  of  it. 

"The  castle  of  Celano,  a  splendid  fortress,  and  till  recently  in  good 
preservation,  was  built  about  1450,  by  one  of  the  three  husbands  of  the 
Countess  Covella  ;  but  whether  Lionello  Acclozamuro,  or  Giacomo 
Caldora,  or  Odoardo  Colonna,  it  is  not  easy  to  state,  as  historians  dis- 
agree as  to  the  order  in  which  the  lady's  husbands  succeeded  each  other. 
But  as,  in  1430,  a  son  of  Lorenzo  Colonna,  Count  of  Alba  and  Celano, 
was  made  Duke  of  Amalfi  by  Queen  Giovanna  II.,  it  is  most  probable 
the  castle  is  of  Colonna  origin." — Lears  Excursions  in  Italy. 

The  district  upon  which  we  have  now  entered,  still  called 
the  Marsica,  was  the  country  of  the  Marsi,  who,  after  their 
subjugation  by  Rome  in  45  a.  u.  c,  became  its  firm  allies. 
Their  legendary  founder  was  Marsus,  son  of  Circe,  whence, 
perhaps,  they  are  frequently  represented  as  magicians,  who 
had  the  power  of  rendering  harmless  the  venom  of  serpents. 
Virgil  alludes  to  this  in  the  passage  in  which  he  gives  his 
beautiful  one-line  description  of  the  Lago  Fucino. 

**  Quin  et  Marrubia  venit  de  gente  sacerdos, 
Fronde  super  galeam  et  felici  comtus  oliva, 
Archippi  regis  missu,  fortissimus  Umbro  : 
Vipereo  generi  et  graviter  spirantibus  hydris 
Spargere  qui  somnos  cantuque  manuque  solebat, 
Mulcebatque  iras,  et  morsus  arte  levabat. 
Sed  non  Dardaniae  medicari  cuspidis  ictum 
Evaluit ;  neque  eum  juvere  in  vulnera  cantus 
Somniferi,  et  Marsis  qusesitae  raontibus  herbse. 
Te  nemus  Anguitise,  vitrea  te  Fucinus  unda, 
Te  liquidi  flevere  lacus." 

/En.  vii.  750. 

And  Silius  Italicus  speaks  in  the  same  terms  of  the 
Marsi : — 


A  VEZZANO. 


[83 


**  At  Marsica  pubes 
Et  bellare  manu,  et  chelydris  cantare  soporem, 
Vipereumque  herbis  hebetare  et  carmine  dentem. 
^ctse  prolem  Angitiam  mala  gramina  primam 
Monstravisse  ferunt,  tactuque  domare  venena 
Et  lunam  excussisse  polo,  stridoribus  amnes 
Frenantem,  et  sylvis  montes  nudasse  vocatis. 
Sed  populis  nomen  posuit  metuentior  hospes, 
Cum  fiigeret  Phrygios  trans  aequora  Marsya  Crenos." 

Sil,  Ital.  viii.  497. 

Below  Celano,  a  road  leads  beneath  the  mountains  along 
what  was  once  the  basin  of  the  lake  (6  miles)  to  Avezzano^ 
a  dull  country  town,  with  a  fine  old  castle  of  the  Barbe- 
rini  at  one  end  of  it,  originally  built  by  the  Colonna.  Here 
we  found  a  tolerable  little  inn  with  a  good  mountain  view, 
which  is  a  pleasant  centre  for  excursions. 


Castle  of  Avezzano. 


Only  about  three  miles  from  Avezzano,  crowning  one  of 
the  lower  hills,  is  Alba  Fucinensis^  once  a  very  important 
place,  the  head-quarters  of  the  Legio  Marsica^  which  Cicero 
praises  in  his  Philippics,  and  the  stronghold  where  Syphax, 


1 84  DAYS  NEAR  ROME, 

king  of  Numidia,  Perseus  of  Macedonia,  and  other  captive 
sovereigns  were  imprisoned  by  the  Romans.  It  continued  to 
be  a  strong  fortress  after  the  fall  of  the  Empire,  and  its  final 
ruin  is  due  to  Charles  I.  of  Anjou,  who  destroyed  the  city,  to 
punish  its  adherence  to  Conradin.  Beneath  the  present  town 
are  very  perfect  polygonal  walls,  and  there  are  some  remains 
of  an  amphitheatre.  It  looks  down  upon  the  ancient  territory 
of  Alba,  fruitful  from  early  times. 

"...  interiorque  per  udos 
Alba  sedet  campos,  pomisque  rependit  aristas.'' 

Sil.  Hal.  viii.  508. 

Standing  quite  on  a  separate  height,  is  the  interesting 
Church  of  S.  Pietro,  occupying  the  site  of  a  temple,  portions 
of  which  are  incorporated  in  its  walls.  It  has  an  ancient 
mosaic  pavement.  The  position  is  most  beautiful,  backed 
by  Monte  Velino  and  overlooking  the  plain  of  Tagliacozzo. 
In  the  valley,  near  the  present  village  of  Scurcola,  Conra- 
din, the  unhappy  son  of  Manfred,  was  defeated  (August  26, 
1268)  by  Charles  I.  of  Anjou,  a  victory  which  established  the 
power  of  the  Guelphs  in  Italy.  It  is  said  to  have  been  due  to 
the  advice  given  to  Charles  by  Alard  de  St  Valery,  who  was 
then  returning  from  the  Holy  Land. 

"Elada  Tagliacozzo 
Ove  senz'  arme  vinse  il  vecchio  Alardo." 

Dante^  Inf.  xxviii.  17. 

Hence  Conradin  fled  with  a  few  faithful  attendants  to 
Astura,  where  he  was  betrayed  by  the  traitor  Frangipani, 
and  hurried  by  Charles  to  Naples,  where  he  was  executed. 
The  ruined  Church  of  S.  Maria  della  Vittoria  was  built  by 
the  conqueror  to  commemorate  his  victory. 

It  is  about  10  miles  from  Avezzano  to  Tagliacozzo,  which 


TAGLIACOZZO.  185 

for  savage   picturesqueness — "  gli  orrori,"  the  natives  call 
it — is  almost  unrivalled. 

"  I  have  never  seen  anything  more  majestic  than  the  approach  to 
Tagliacozzo.  It  is  a  precipitous  ravine,  almost  artificial  in  appearance ; 
and  by  some,  indeed,  considered  as  having  been  partly  formed  by  the 
Romans,  for  the  transit  of  the  Via  Valeria.  A  monastery,  with  a  Cal- 
vario,  or  range  of  shrines,  stands  at  the  entrance  of  this  extraordinary 
gorge,  the  portals  of  which  are,  on  one  hand,  huge  crags,  crested  with 
a  ruined  castle ;  on  the  other,  perpendicular  precipices  :  between  them 
is  placed  the  town,  receding  step  by  step  to  the  plain  below,  while  the 
picture  is  completed  by  the  three  peaks  of  the  towering  Monte  Velino, 
entirely  filling  up  the  opening  of  the  ravine. 

"The  lines  of  Dante  have  rendered  the  name  of  this  town  familiar  to 
the  reader  of  Italian  poetry ;  not  that  the  battle  between  Conradino  and 
Charles  was  fought  within  a  considerable  distance,  and  one  wonders 
why  the  celebrated  though  decayed  city  of  Alba,  or  the  modem  Avez- 
zano,  near  which  the  engagement  actually  took  place,  did  not  rather 
connect  their  names  with  so  great  an  historical  event.  Tagliacozzo  was 
then,  perhaps,  the  more  important  place.  At  present,  the  town  con- 
tains upwards  of  three  thousand  inhabitants,  and  is  the  most  thriving  in 
all  the  Marsica. 

"There  is  no  record  of  Tagliacozzo  having  been  the  site  of  any  ancient 
city ;  though  Tagliaquitum,  Taleacotium,  have  called  forth  a  great  deal 
of  ingenuity  from  various  antiquarian  etyroologists.  It  seems  to  have 
been  a  stronghold  of  importance,  and  its  possession  was  often  contested 
during  the  divisions  of  the  middle  ages,  as  commanding  a  passage  be- 
tween the  Papal  and  Neapolitan  dominions  :  the  counts,  or  dukes  ot 
Tagliacozzo,  were  consequently  powerful  barons.  .  In  1442  a.  D,,  it  was 
bestowed  on  the  Orsini  by  King  Alfonso  :  and,  in  1497,  Fabrizio 
Colonna  received  it  from  King  Ferrante ;  and  the  Colonnesi  still  hold 
much  of  the  territory  round  the  town.  Tagliacozzo  is  much  resorted  to 
by  the  devout,  from  its  containing  the  remains  of  the  Bishop  Tom- 
maso  di  Celano,  whose  bones  rest  in  the  church  of  S.  Francesco. 
The  Madonna,  called  dell'  Oriente,  is  also  an  object  of  great  venera- 
tion."— Lear's  Excursions  in  Italy. 

There  is  a  bridle  road  from  hence  to  Arsoli,  which  is  only 
a  short  distance  off  the  high  road  between  Tivoli  and  Subiaco. 
Tivoli  is  only  about  30  miles  distant,  so  that  this  is  the  short- 


1 86  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

est  way  of  returning  to  Rome,  but  it  is  necessary  to  ride  for 
some  hours.  The  path,  for  the  most  part,  follows  the 
ancient  Via  Valeria :  and  it  passes  Carsoli,  on  the  site  of 
Carseoli,  where  the  Equi  sacrificed  foxes  to  Ceres,  and 
where  Bitis,  son  of  the  king  of  Thrace,  was  imprisoned 
by  the  Romans.    Ovid  speaks  of  the  coldness  of  its  climate  : 

"  Frigida  Carseoli,  nee  olivis  apta  fergndis. 
Terra,  sed  ad  segetes  ingeniosus  ager. 
Hac  ego  Pelignos,  natalia  rura,  petebam  ; 
Parva,  sed  assiduis  uvida  semper  aquis. 

Fast.  iv.  683. 

Cavaliere,  beyond  this,  was  built  by  a  Cavaliere  of  the 
Colonna  family,  who  was  nearly  lost  on  these  desolate  hills 
m  the  snow. 

A  third  excursion,  and  one  which  should  on  no  account 
be  omitted,  may  be  made  from  Avezzano  to  Luco.  The 
road  passes  along  the  shore  of  what  once  was  the  Lago 
di  Fucino,  sometimes  called  the  Lago  di  Celano.  It  is 
2 181  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  had  an  area  of  36,315 
acres,  and  was  35  miles  in  circumference.  Having  no  na- 
tural outlet,  the  villages  on  its  banks  were  subject  to 
frequent  inundations,  and,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Julius 
Caesar,  the  Marsi  petitioned  help  and  advice  for  carrying  off 
the  superabundant  waters.  The  Emperor  Claudius  under- 
took the  construction  of  an  emissary  at  his  own  cost,  on 
condition  of  receiving  all  the  land  reclaimed  by  the  drain- 
age. It  was  the  intention  to  carry  the  waters  into  the  Liris 
by  a  tunnel  3  J  miles  in  length,  and  hewn,  for  a  great  part  of 
the  way,  out  of  the  solid  rock.  For  this  work,  30,000  men 
were  employed  for  eleven  years. 


THE  EMISSARIUM.  187 

The  Emissary  was  opened  by  Claudius  and  Agrippina 
with  a  great  gladiatorial  display  in  a.  d.  52. 

**  A  passage  having  been  cut  through  the  mountain  between  the  lake 
Fucinus  and  the  river  Liris,  in  order  that  a  greater  number  of  persons 
might  be  induced  to  come  and  see  the  magnificence  of  the  work,  a  sea- 
fight  was  got  up  on  the  lake  itself;  in  the  same  manner  in  which 
Augustus  before  exhibited  one  on  an  artificial  pool  on  this  side  the  Tiber, 
but  with  light  ships,  and  fewer  men.  Claudius  equipped  galleys,  of 
three  and  four  banks  of  oars,  and  manned  them  with  19,000  mariners  ; 
surrounding  the  space  with  a  line  of  rafts,  to  limit  the  means  of  escape, 
but  giving  room  enough,  in  its  circuit,  to  ply  the  oars,  for  the  pilots  to 
exert  their  skill,  for  the  ships  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  each  other, 
and  for  all  the  usual  operations  in  a  sea-fight.  Upon  the  rafts,  parties 
of  the  praetorian  guards,  foot  and  horse,  were  stationed,  with  bulwarks 
before  them,  from  which  catapults  and  balistas  might  be  worked  :  the 
rest  of  the  lake  was  occupied  by  marine  forces,  stationed  on  decked 
ships.  The  shores,  the  adjacent  hills,  and  the  tops  of  the  mountains, 
were  crowded  with  a  countless  multitude,  many  from  the  neighbouring 
towns,  others  firom  Rome  itself ;  impelled  either  by  desire  to  witness  the 
spectacle,  or  in  compliment  to  the  prince ;  and  exhibited  the  appear- 
ance of  a  vast  theatre.  The  emperor  presided,  in  a  superb  coat  of 
mail,  and,  not  far  from  him,  Agrippina,  in  a  mantle  of  cloth  of  gold. 
The  battle,  though  between  malefactors,  was  fought  with  the  spirit  of 
brave  men  ;  and,  after  great  bloodshed,  they  were  excused  from  press- 
ing the  carnage  to  extremities. 

'*  When  the  spectacle  was  concluded,  the  channel  through  which  the 
water  passed  off  was  exhibited  to  view,  when  the  negligence  of  the  work- 
men became  manifest,  as  the  work  was  not  carried  to  the  depth  of  the 
bottom  or  centre  of  the  lake.  The  excavations  were,  therefore,  after 
some  time,  extended  to  a  greater  depth ;  and,  to  draw  the  multitude 
once  m-^re  together,  a  show  of  gladiators  was  exhibited  upon  bridges 
laid  over  it,  in  order  to  display  a  fight  of  infantry.  Moreover,  an 
erection  for  the  purpose  of  a  banquet,  at  the  embouchure  of  the  lake, 
caused  great  alarm  to  the  assembly ;  for,  the  force  of  the  water  rushing 
out,  carried  away  whatever  was  near  it,  shook  and  sundered  what  was 
further  off,  or  terrified  the  guests  with  the  crash  and  noise.  At  the  same 
time,  Agrippina,  converting  the  emperor's  alarm  to  her  own  purposes, 
accused  Narcissus,  the  director  of  the  work,  with  avarice  and  robbery  ; 
nor  did  Narcissus  repress  his  anger,  but  charged  Agrippina  with  the 
wverbearing  spirit  of  her  sex,  and  with  extravagant  ambition." — Tacitxis^ 
xii.  56,  57. 


1 88  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Owing  to  various  errors  in  its  construction,  the  Emissary 
of  Claudius  continued  to  be  practically  a  failure,  and  though 
Hadrian  and  Trajan  attempted  to  improve  it,  it  soon  became 
choked  up.  Frederick  II.  vainly  attempted  to  re-open  it. 
In  1852  the  lake  was  granted  by  the  government  to  a  Swiss 
company,  on  condition  that  they  would  undertake  to  drain 
it,  and  their  rights  were  purchased  by  Prince  Torlonia,  who 
at  his  sole  cost— about  ;^i,4oo,ooo — has  carried  out  the 
work.  One  engineer  after  another  has  perished  from  fever 
while  employed  in  its  construction,  and  the  expense  has 
been  so  enormous,  tha.t  it  has  become  a  popular  saying, 
**  O  Torlonia  secca  il  Fucino,  o  il  Fucino  secca  Torlonia." 

After  all,  the  work  may  still  in  one  sense  be  esteemed  a 
failure.  Though  the  redeemed  land  is  wonderfully  rich,  it  is 
considered  that  the  profits  of  a  thousand  years  will  not  repay 
the  Torlonias  for  the  expenses  they  have  undergone ;  the 
inhabitants  of  the  towns  along  the  lake,  who  formerly  gained 
an  abundant  livelihood  as  fishermen,  are  reduced  to  the 
utmost  poverty ;  and,  while  the  air  was  formerly  extremely 
salubrious,  the  natives  are  now  a  constant  prey  to  fevers  from 
the  exhalations  of  the  marshy  land.  It  is  hoped  that  this  ex- 
perience may  preserve  the  beautiful  lakes  of  Thrasymene 
and  Bolsena. 

About  two  miles  from  Avezzano,  at  the  spot  called  Incile^ 
we  pass  the  works  of  the  Emissario.  The  modern  work  has 
destroyed  the  whole  of  the  interesting  remains  of  the  time  of 
Claudius,  and  though  the  mountains  cannot  be  spoilt,  there 
is  little  else  to  remind  us  of  the  scene  of  a  few  years  ago, 
which  Lear  has  beautifully  described  : 

*'  The  plain  of  Avezzano  j  the  clear  blue  lake ;  Alba,  and  Velino, 
with  its  fine  peaks,  alternately  in  bright  light,  or  shaded  by  passing 


S.  MARIA  Dl  LUCO.  189 

clouds  ;  the  far  snow-covered  mountains  beyond  Solmona  ;  the  bare  pass 
of  Forca  Carusa  ;  the  precipitous  crag  of  Celano, — all  these  at  once, 
brilliant  with  the  splendour  of  Italian  morning,  form  a  scene  not  to  be 
slightly  gazed  at,  or  lightly  forgotten — the  utter  quiet  of  all  around  !  the 
character  of  undisturbed  beauty  which  threw  a  spell  of  enchantment  over 
the  whole ! 

"A  herd  of  white  goats  blinking  and  sneezing  lazily  in  the  early  sun  ; 
their  goatherd  piping  on  a  little  reed  ;  two  or  three  large  falcons  soaring 
above  the  lake  ;  the  watchful  cormorant  sitting  motionless  on  its  shining 
surface ;  and  a  host  of  merry  flies  sporting  in  the  fragrant  air, — these  are 
the  only  signs  of  life  in  the  very  spot  where  the  thrones  of  Claudius  and 
his  Empress  were  placed  on  the  crowd-blackened  hill :  a  few  fishing- 
boats  dotted  the  lake  where,  eighteen  centuries  ago,  the  cries  of  combat 
rent  the  air,  and  the  glitter  of  contending  galleys  delighted  the  Roman 
multitude. 

"  The  solitary  character  of  the  place  is  most  striking ;  no  link  between 
the  gay  populous  past,  and  the  lonely  present ;  no  work  of  any  interme- 
diate century  breaks  its  desolate  and  poetical  feeling. " — Excursions  in 
Italy. 

About  5^  miles  from  Avezzano  we  reach  Luco.  There  is 
nothing  to  see  in  the  town,  except  a  miraculous  Madonna  in 
the  principal  church.  But  on  the  right,  just  before  reaching 
the  town,  we  pass  the  Church  of  S.  Maria  di  Luco  which 
occupies  the  site  and  looks  down  upon  the  walls  of  the 
ancient  city  of  Angutia,  identified  by  inscriptions.  Here 
also,  at  an  earlier  time,  was  the  sacred  grove  (the  Lucus 
Angutice  of  Virgil)  of  Angutia,  the  sister  of  Circe  and  Medea. 

The  church,  which  rises  on  the  ancient  walls,  is  of  great 
age,  having  been  given  to  the  Benedictines,  by  Doda,  Con- 
tessa  de'  Marsi,  in  a.  d.  930.  It  is  a  very  interesting  build- 
ing with  round-headed  doorways.  The  interior  has  been 
used  as  a  Campo  Santo,  and  there  is  a  chapel  filled  with 
skulls  and  human  bones.  The  situation,  surrounded  by 
oak-trees,  is  lovely,  and  must  have  been  surpassingly  so, 
when  it  looked  out  upon  the  vast  expanse  of  lake-waters. 


I90  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Lear  mentions  how  the  rope  of  the  church  bell  was  carried 
through  the  window  of  the  sacristan's  house,  so  that  he  might 
ring  it  without  leaving  his  room,  and  it  is  so  still. 

About  three  miles  beyond  Luco  is  Trasacco  (formerly 
Transaqua)  built  on  the  site  of  the  palace  of  Claudius,  after- 
wards inhabited  by  Trajan.  Here  the  Church  of  S.  Rufino 
is  said  to  have  been  built  in  a.  d.  237,  by  the  first  Bishop  of 
the  Marsi,  who  suffered  martyrdom,  with  S.  Cesidio,  under 
Maximin. 

Beyond,  on  the  former  shore,  are  several  other  villages, 
Ortucchio,  with  an  old  castle,  standing  near  the  supposed  site 
of  Archippe,  which  Pliny  describes  as  having  been  swallowed 
up  by  the  lake  j  Fescina,  the  see  of  the  bishop  still  called 
"  II  vescovo  de'  Marsi ; "  and  San  Benedetto,  occupying  the 
site  of  Marruvium,  the  capital  of  the  Marsi : 

**  Marruvium,  veteris  celebratum  nomine  Marri, 
Urbibus  est  illis  caput." 

Silius  Ital.  viii.  507. 

Many  remains  of  ancient  buildings  may  be  seen,  and 
during  the  drought  of  1752,  several  statues  of  Roman  em- 
perors, now  in  the  museum  at  Naples,  were  discovered  here 
in  the  lake. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

SORA,  AND  THE  LAND  OF  CICERO. 

(An  uncomfortable  and  frequently  crowded  diligence  leaves  Avezzano 
at  8  P.  M.,  arriving  at  Sora  about  i  A.  M. 

Sora  is  easily  reached  from  Rome,  by  the  station  of  Rocca-Secca, 
from  which  it  is  a  pleasant  drive  of  about  3  hours,  and  a  railway  will 
shortly  bring  it  within  the  range  of  an  even  easier  excursion  from  the 
capital. 

The  Albergo  di  Roma  at  Sora  is  an  admirable  country  inn,  with  ex- 
ceedingly moderate  prices.  Carriages  may  be  obtained  at  Sora  for  the 
day.  To  Ai-pino  and  Isola  with  S.  Domenico,  12  francs  :  to  Isola 
alone  zYz  francs  :  to  S.  Germano,  staying  some  hours  at  Atina,  20  francs  : 
to  Rocca-Secca,  from  12  to  15  francs.) 

ON  leaving  Avezzano  the  road  immediately  begins  the 
ascent  of  the  Monte  Salviano^  so  called  from  the  wild 
sage  with  which  it  is  covered.  The  views  are  beautiful,  of  the 
valley,  and  the  opposite  heights  of  Monte  Velino.  Crossing 
the  mountain,  we  reach,  in  a  savage  situation  on  the  right, 
Capistrdlo,  beneath  which  is  the  mouth  of  the  Emissary  of 
the  Lago  Fucino.  About  three  miles  beyond  the  village  of 
Civita  di  Roveto,  a  road  on  the  left  leads  (2  miles)  to  Civita 
d'Antino,  cresting  a  hill,  and  occupying  the  site  of  the 
ancient  Antinum  of  which  some  polygonal  walls  remain. 
Near  this  is  the  waterfall  of  La  Schioppo^  a  beautiful  cascade 
of  the  river  Romito. 


192  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

On  the  left,  four  miles  before  reaching  Sora,  we  pass 
beneath  the  town  of  Balzorano,  crowned  by  a  grand  old 
castle  of  the  Piccolomini.  It  is  a  glorious  subject  for  an 
artist. 

Sora,  a  bright  well-paved  to^vn  on  the  river  Liris,  was 
originally  a  Volscian  city  colonized  by  the  Romans.  In 
modern  times  it  was  the  birthplace  of  Cardinal  Baronius.  It 
has  a  ruined  castle,  which,  after  having  passed  through  the 
hands  of  the  Cantelmi  and  Tomacelli,  now  gives  a  ducal 
title  to  the  Buoncompagni. 

**  During  the  earlier  portion  of  the  middle  ages  Sora  is  often  men- 
tioned as  a  frontier  town,  which  the  Lombard  dukes  of  Benevento 
attacked  and  plundered.  It  may  have  been  then  Byzantine.  From  time 
to  time  governed  by  counts  of  Lombard  race  (for  the  whole  region  near 
the  Liris  was  once  filled  with  Lombards),  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
emperor  Frederick  IL,  who  destroyed  it.  Afterwards  it  belonged  to  the 
powerful  counts  of  Aquino,  who  possessed  almost  all  the  land  between 
the  Vultumus  and  the  Liris.  Then  Charles  of  Anjou  made  the  Cantel- 
mi, relations  of  the  Stuarts,  counts  of  Sora,  and  Alfonso  of  Arragon 
raised  Sora  to  a  duchy,  of  which  Nicolo  Cantelmi  was  the  first  duke.  The 
Popes  had  long  coveted  the  possession  of  the  beautiful  border-land,  and 
they  obtained  it  under  Pius  IL,  whose  captain  Napoleone  OrsinL con- 
quered Sora.  Ferdinand  I.  of  Naples  confirmed  the  possession  ;  but 
Sixtus  IV.  separated  it  from  the  church  in  147 1,  when  he  married  his 
nephew  Leonardo  della  Rovere  to  the  king's  niece,  who  received  the 
duchy  of  Sora  as  a  dowry.  Afterwards  Gregory  XIII.  bought  Sora,  in 
1580,  from  the  duke  of  Urbino  for  his  son  Don  Giacomo  Buoncompagni, 
and  seldom  has  a  Roman  *  nipote '  had  a  more  charming  possession. 
This  property  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Buoncompagni-Ludovisi  till 
the  end  of  the  i8th  century,  when  it  returned  to  Naples,  and  of  the 
splendour  of  that  Roman  nepotism  there  only  remains  in  Rome  the 
Palazzo  di  Sora  and  the  title  of  Duke  of  Sora,  which  is  now  borne  by 
the  eldest  son  of  Prince  Ludovisi-APiombino." — Gregorovius. 

The  present  interest  of  Sora  arises  entirely  from  the  fact 
that  here  Italian  costume  reaches  its  climax.  The  dress  is 
purely  Greek,  and  so  are  the  ornaments,  and  so,  indeed,  is 


VALLEY  OF  THE  LIRIS. 


193 


the  wonderful  beauty  of  the  women.  The  best  peasant 
jewels,  of  designs  such  as  are  seen  in  Greek  sculpture,  are 
all  bought  and  sold  here.  Owing  to  the  factories  of  the 
Liris  and  the  great  care  which  their  owner,  M.  Lefebvre, 
bestows  upon  his  workmen,  the  people  are  all  most  thriving 
and  prosperous,  and  the  valley  of  the  Liris  may  be  regarded 
as  "  the  Happy  Valley  "  of  Central  Italy. 


Contadina,  Valley  of  the  Liris. 

**The  modem  factories,  mostly  paper-mills,  on  a  large  scale  and  on 
the  newest  system,  owe  their  rise  chiefly  to  Frenchmen  of  the  time  of 
VOL.  IL  13 


194  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Murat,  among  them  M.  Lefebvre.  [This  man  arrived  poor,  but  the 
banks  of  the  Liris  became  to  him  an  Eldorado,  for  he  drew  pure  gold 
from  the  power  of  water.  He  left  to  his  son  manufactures  and  millions. 
The  king  of  Naples,  I  think  Ferdinand  II.,  ennobled  his  family;  they 
richly  deserved  this  honour,  for  a  hitherto  scarcely  cultivated  region 
owes  to  the  inventive  genius  of  this  one  man  an  abundant  life  which 
will  not  disappear  but  increase.  The  creative  action  of  a  man  in  a  cer- 
tain circle  of  industry  belongs  to  those  manifestations  of  human  activity 
which  we  may  contemplate  with  the  purest  interest ;  if  such  (action)  is 
frequent  in  England,  Germany,  or  P'rance,  and  rare  in  Naples,  we 
may  easily  imagine  how  highly  merit  of  this  kind  is  to  be  esteemed." — 
Gregot'ovius. 

As  in  the  days  of  Juvenal,  Sora  may  be  looked  upon  as 
a  pleasant  retreat  for  respectable  old  age  : 

*'Si  potes  avelli  Circensibus,  optima  Soras, 
Aut  Fabraterise  domus,  aut  Frusinone  paratur, 
Quanti  nunc  tenebras  unum  conducis  m  annum." 

Sai.  iii.  223. 

It  is  only  two  miles  from  Sora,  descending  the  valley  of 
the  Liris,  to  the  old  conventual  church  of  S.  Domenico 
Abate.  It  stands  on  an  island  in  the  Fibreno,  close  to  its 
junction  with  the  Liris.  The  nave  is  of  very  good  and  pure 
Gothic.  In  the  adjoining  convent  S.  Domenico  Abate  died. 
These  buildings  occupy  the  site,  and  are  built  from  the 
remains  of  the  beloved  villa  of  Cicero.  In  Cicero  "de 
Legibus  "  *  Atticus  asks  why  Cicero  is  so  much  attached  to 
this  Villa,  and  Cicero  answers  : 

"Why,  to  tell  the  truth,  this  is  the  real  home  of  myself,  and  my 
brother  here.  Our  family,  a  most  ancient  one,  had  its  rise  here,  our 
household-gods  are  here,  our  clan,  and  many  a  relic  of  our  ancestors. 
Well,  and  you  see  this  Villa,  it  was  enlarged  to  its  present  form  by  my 
father,  who,  as  his  health  failed,  spent  his  latter  years  here  in  study,  and 
in  this  very  spot,  my  grandfather  being  still  alive,  and  the  Villa  still 

•  II.  I.  3. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  CICERO, 


»9S 


small  and  old-fashioned,  like  the  one  at  Cures  on  my  Sabine  estate,  I 
was  born.  So  that  deep  down  in  my  heart  I  cherish  a  singular  feeling 
and  affection  for  the  place  :  just  as  we  read  of  that  most  cunning  hero, 
who  to  see  his  Ithaca  renounced  immortality." 


Contadina,  Sora. 

Afterwards  the  island  became  the  property  of  Silius  Italicus. 

•'  Silius  haec  magni  celebrat  monumenta  Maronis, 
Jugera  facundi  qui  Ciceronis  habet. 

Martialy  Ep.  xi.  49. 

As  we  enter  the  plot  of  garden  ground  behind  the  con- 
vent, we  cannot  wonder  at  the  affection  which  the  great 
orator  entertained  for  the  place.     On  all  sides  it  is  sur- 


196 


DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 


rounded  by  clear  glancing  water.  The  Fibrenus  is  lovely, 
with  wooded  banks,  and  abounding  in  trout.  Through  the 
trees  we  have  exquisite  mountain  views.  In  spring  the 
banks  are  one  sheet  of  violets,  and  primroses — which  are  very 
rare  in  Italy.  Amid  the  rich  vegetation  lie  fragments  and 
capitals  of  columns ;  a  tall  pillar  with  some  Roman  masonry 
grouped  around  it,  stands  at  the  west  end  of  the  church, 
and  the  crypt  is  supported  by  low  massive  pillars  of  granite 
and  marble,  evidently  taken  from  the  ruins  of  the  villa. 


Remains  of  Cicero's  Villa,  S.  Domenico. 


"  It  was  here  that  Cicero,  Quintus,  and  Atticus  held  those  conversa- 
tions which  we  possess  as  the  three  books  *  de  Legibus.'  They  wander 
on  foot  from  Arpinum  to  the  river  Fibrenus,  they  arrive  at  the  *  insula 
quse  est  in  Fibreno,'  here  they  will  sit  and  philosophise  further.  Atticus 
wonders  at  the  beauty  of  the  place,  and  Cicero,  who  remarks  that  he  is 
fond  of  meditating,  reading,  or  writing  here,  says  that  the  place  has  a 
peculiar  additional  charm  for  him  from  having  been  his  own  cradle : 


THE  ISLAND  OF  CICERO.  197 

*quia  hac  est  mea  et  hujusfratris  mei  germana  patria  ;  hinc  enim  orti 
stirpg  anttquissiina,  hie  sacra,  hie  gens,  hie  majorum  multa  vestigia.''  He 
relates  that  his  grandfather  possessed  this  villa  ;  that  his  sickly  father, 
who  enlarged  it,  there  became  old  in  his  studies.  At  the  sight  of  his 
birthplace  Cicero  confesses  that  the  same  feeling  came  over  him  which 
Ulysses  experienced,  when  he  preferred  the  sight  of  Ithaca  to  immor- 
tality. He  avows  that  Arpinum  is  his  home,  as  'civitas,'  but  that  he 
properly  belonged  to  the  country  round  Arpinum  ;  and  Atticus  now 
paints  the  lovely  position  of  the  island  in  the  arms  of  the  Fibrenus, 
which  refreshes  the  waters  of  the  Liris,*  and  is  so  cold  that  he  scarcely 
dared  to  bathe  his  feet  in  it.  They  sit  down  to  converse  further  about 
the  laws,  and  we  prefer  the  sight  of  these  three  men  of  Roman  urbanity, 
and  of  the  highest  education  of  their  day,  to  that  of  the  company  of 
monks  in  cowls,  where  Gregory  VH.  sits  by  some  holy  man  with  a 
tangled  beard,  in  the  eleventh  century,  the  epoch  at  which  Rome  was 
lost  in  the  deepest  barbarism  both  of  manners  and  civilization.  How 
Cicero,  Atticus,  and  Quintus  would  have  stared  at  the  Romans  of  the 
eleventh  century. 

'*  So  the  chattering  poplars  of  the  Fibrenus  surrounded  the  cradle  of 
Cicero— and  one  still  listens  with  pleasure  to  the  ceaseless  whispers 
of  these  quivering  branches,  whose  leaves  are  as  busy  and  talkative  as 
the  tongues  of  women.  Yes  !  Cicero  certainly  had  an  enviable  birth- 
place, but  what  good  is  there  in  talking  of  it  to  those  who  can  never  give 
one  glance  at  this  land  of  nymphs,  of  unfading  flowers,  and  an  eternal 
spring  ?  Around  it,  what  a  panorama  of  hills,  brown,  or  hyacinthine- 
blue  in  the  still  majesty  of  aerial  distance  !  Cicero  was  a  child  of  the  plain, 
not  of  the  hills,  and  his  great  intellect  accumulated  to  itself  all  the 
learning  of  his  time,  as  a  mighty  stream  receives  the  brooks  :  but 
Marius  was  a  child  of  the  mountain,  bom  above  in  Arpinum  within 
the  walls  of  the  Cyclops,  and  hither  we  will  now  turn  our  steps." — 
Gregoravius. 

If  we  cross  the  river  Liris,  in  front  of  the  convent,  by  the 
ferry-boat — which  is  in  itself  a  picture,  when  filled  with 
women  in  their  bright  costumes,  accompanied  by  their 
donkeys  with  panniers  full  of  vegetables — we  may  visit,  below 
the  gardens,  the  ruin  of  a  Roman  bridge,  called  Po7ite  di 
Cicerone.     Only  a  single  arch  remains. 

The  most  famous  of  the  monks  of  S.  Domenico  was  Hilde- 
brand,  afterwards  Pope  Gregory  VII. 


198  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

*'  This  wonderful  man  may  often  have  sat  under  the  poplars  on  this 
charming  island  of  Cicero  in  dreamy  meditation,  but  he  would  never 
have  dreamt  that  an  emperor  should  one  day  stand  before  his  door  in 
the  dress  of  a  penitent,  and  that  it  was  reserved  for  him  to  play  a  greater 
part  in  Rome,  indeed  in  the  history  of  the  world,  than  either  Marius  or 
C  icero. " — Gregoravius. 

Below  S.  Domenico  we  reach  the  Cartiera,  the  paper- 
manufactory,  of  M.  Lefebvre,  in  whose  gardens  are  some 
charming  little  cascades — cascatelle — of  the  Fibreno. 

Here,  turning  to  the  left,  we  ascend  the  olive-clad  hills, 
by  a  beautiful  terraced  road  of  about  three  miles,  to  Arpino. 
The  country  is  rich  and  smiling,  and  the  people  prosperous 
and  well  cared  for.  Men  and  women  alike  wear  sandals, 
pointed  at  the  toe.  Arpino  stands  finely  on  twin  hills,  one 
summit  occupied  by  the  Cyclopean,  the  other  by  the  Roman 
city. 

"  There  is  a  great  charm  in  seeing  for  the  first,  time,  in  the  mysterious 
distance,  a  place  to  which  belong  two  celebrated  names,  which  mark 
epochs  in  the  world's  history,  and  have  been  known  to  us  from  child- 
hood. Memories  of  youth  return  to  strengthen  the  impression — school 
scenes  when  Cicero  was  explained,  even  the  look  of  the  well-worn 
school-book  in  grey  paper,  Cicero's  Orations,  above  all  the  declaiming 
of  the  never-to-be-forgotten  '  Quousque  tandem  Catilina. '  And  there 
before  us  is  Cicero's  birthplace." — Gi'egorovius. 

The  Roman  city  of  Arpino  is  entered  by  a  gateway  with 
Roman  masonry.  Near  it  is  a  tomb,  which  the  local  anti- 
quary Clavelli  describes  as  that  of  King  Saturnus,  the 
legendary  founder  of  the  city. 

Arpinum  was  an  ancient  city  of  the  Volscians,  from  whom 
it  was  taken  by  the  Samnites,  and  from  them,  b.  c.  305,  by 
the  Romans,  under  whom,  in  b.  c.  188,  it  obtained  the  Roman 
franchise,  and  was  enrolled  in  the  Cornelian  tribe.  C. 
Marius  was  born  here,  being  of  ignoble  birth. 


ARPiNO.  ^99 

"Arpinas  alius  Volscorum  in  monte  solebat 
Poscere  mercedes  alieno  lassus  aratro  ; 
Nodosam  post  haec  frangebat  vertice  vitem, 
Si  lentus  pigra  muniret  castra  dolabra. 
Hic  tamen  et  Cimbros,  et  summa  pericula  rerum 
Excipit ;  et  solus  trepidantem  protegit  urbem." 

Juvenal^  Sai.  viii.  245. 

And  M.  TuUius  Cicero,  whose  father  was  of  equestrian 
rank. 

*•  Hie  novus  Arpinas,  ignobilis,  et  mode  Romae 
Municipalis  eques  galeatum  ponit  ubique 
Pra-'sidium  attonitis,  et  in  omni  monte  laborat. 
Tantum  igitur  muros  intra  toga  contulit  illi 
Norainis  et  tituli,  quantum  non  Leucade,  quantum 
Thessalioe  campis  Octavius  abstulit  udo 
Caedibus  assiduis  gladio.     Sed  Koma  parentem, 
Roma  patrem  patriae  Ciceronem  libera  dixit." 

yuvenal^  Sat.  viii.  237. 

Cicero  constantly  speaks,  in  his  works,  of  his  native  Ar- 
pinunj.  He  describes  its  inhabitants  as  rustic  and  simple, 
as  was  appropriate  to  the  rugged  district  in  which  they  lived, 
but  with  all  the  virtues  of  mountaineers,  and  he  applies  to 
Arpinum  the  lines  in  the  Odyssey  about  Ithaca  : — 

Tpijx",  oXK  ayaOi)  KovpoTp6<poq'  ovri  fywyc  , 

j]Q  yaiqc  Svva^ai  yKvKtpu)Ttpov  dWo  iSkaQai. 

Odyss.  ix.  27. 

When  Arpino  rebelled  against  Pius  II.  and  was  taken  by  his 
general,  the  Pope  desired  that  it  might  he  spared  "for  the  sake 
of  Marius  and  Marcus  Tullius."  Arpino  itself  has  always 
been  very  proud  of  its  distinguished  citizens,  whose  busts 
adorn  its  little  Casa  Communale.  The  sites  of  houses  are 
pointed  out  which  are  reputed  to  have  belonged  to  them, 
though  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Cicero  lived  nearer 


200  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

than  the  Fibrenus.  The  church  of  St.  Michaele  is  shown 
as  occupying  the  position  of  a  Temple  of  the  Muses  ;  and 
that  of  S.  Maria  di  Civita,  on  the  apex  of  the  hill,  of  a  Temple 
of  Mercury  Lanarius. 

The  painter  Giuseppe  Cesari,  commonly  known  as  the 
"  CavaUere  d'Arpino"  (1560 — 1640),  was  born  here,  in  a 
house  which  is  still  pointed  out. 

"  The  Cavaliere  d'Arpino  formed  a  great  school,  by  means  of  which 
he  directed  the  Roman  practice,  and  formed  a  decided  opposition  10 
other  masters,  particularly  the  school  of  the  Caracci." — Kugler. 

"The Cavaliere  d'Arpino  left  behind  \iYix\. progeniem  vitiosiorem.  He 
was  born  a  painter,  and  in  so  vast  and  difficult  an  art,  had  endow^ments 
sufficient  to  atone,  in  part,  for  his  defects.  His  colouring  in  fresco  was 
admirable,  his  imagination  was  fruitful  and  felicitous,  his  figures  were 
animated.     His  works  are  almost  innumerable. " — LanzL 

Mounting  above  the  houses  on  the  left  of  the  town,  a 
stony  path  over  glaring  steeps  of  limestone  rock  thinly 
planted  with  olives,  leads  to  the  Citta  Vecchia.  It  has  con- 
siderable remains  of  Cyclopean  walls,  and  behind  a  church 
on  the  citadel  is  one  of  the  earliest  architectural  monuments 
in  Europe,  a  most  remarkable  arch  of  gigantic  rough-hewn 
stones  without  cement,  projecting  in  different  courses  till 
they  meet.  It  is  said  to  resemble  the  gates  at  Tiryns  and 
Mycence. 

"It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Cyclopes  assisted  in  making  the  gate 
at  Mycenae  (pide  Pausanias  in  Argol),  and  there  they  cut  and  even  squared 
their  blocks  ;  and  that  Diomede,  who  of  course  had  often  seen  that  gate, 
founded  the  city  of  Arpi,  in  Apulia.  Query  :  Did  any  of  that  or  any 
other  Greek  colony  reach  Arpinum,  the  name  of  which  seems  a  deriva- 
tive ? — for  the  gate  of  Arpinum,  now  called  Acuminata,  remains  in  such 
a  state,  that  the  size,  the  form,  and  even  the  number  of  stones  seem 
almost  a  copy  of  the  gate  of  jMycenae.  The  blocks  also  on  each  side  of 
the  portal  advance,  in  the  same  manner,  as  if  to  embrace  a  triangiikit 
iitone  above  the  opening.     The  triangular  stone,  with  the  two  jambs,  and 


ARPINO. 


201 


the  architrave,  unfortunately  do  not  remain,  but  the  upper  part  of  the 
opening  could  have  been  closed  in  no  other  manner." — Gell. 

•*  I  stood  high  on  the  Cyclopean  walls  and  gazed  with  rapture  upon 
the  Latian  landscape,  for  the  citadel  being  in  such  a  lofty  situation,  the 
view  around  is  grand  and  extensive.  The  hill  of  Sora  looked  like  a 
little  pyramid,  like  one  of  those  in  Egypt ;  and,  in  its  black  shadow,  lay 


Gate  of  Arpinum. 


the  town  ;  and  fully  exposed  to  view  was  the  valley  of  the  Liris,  majes- 
tically surrounded  by  high  hills.  There  is  La  Posta  from  whence  the 
Fibrenus  flows ;  there  Sette  Frati  (Seven  Brothers)  dedicated  to  the  sons 
of  Felicitas,  where  that  strange  Alberic  had  the  vision,  which  preceded 
that  of  Dante  and  may  perhaps  have  been  the  foundation  of  it.  Many 
other  places  and  castles  glimmer  in  the  blue  atmosphere  of  these  most 


202  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

glorious  mountain  ranges.  On  the  Roman  side  we  see  Veroli,  Monte 
San  Giovanni,  Frosinone,  Ferentino,  and  at  the  side  rises  an  obelisk -like 
bill  surmounted  by  the  castle  of  Arce,  and  another  on  which  stands  the 
solitary  and  very  black  tower  of  Monte  Negro.  All  these  castles  are  of 
Saturnian  origin,  and  strange  is  the  scene  upon  which  one  gazes,  when 
sitting  upon  these  ivy-covered  Cyclopean  walls,  over  which  the  elements 
have  swept  for  thousands  of  years. 

"It  is  a  historical  panorama  which  surrounds  Arpinum,  and  I  shall  not 
leave  its  citadel  without  first  recalling  that  short  and  true  picture  into 
which  Valerius  Maximus  compressed  the  career  and  origin  of  Marius. 
From  that  Marius,  he  says,  a  low-born  Arpinian,  an  obscure  man  in 
Rome,  who  was  even  as  it  were  disliked  as  a  candidate,  rose  that 
Marius,  who  subjugated  Africa,  drove  King  Jugurtha  before  his  chariot, 
annihilated  the  armies  of  the  Teutons  and  the  Cimbri,  whose  two-fold 
trophies  were  seen  in  the  city,  whose  seven  consulships  are  registered  in 
the  Fasti,  who,  from  an  exiled  Consul  and  a  proscribed  man,  became  a 
proscribes  What  is  more  full  of  contrasts  than  his  career  ?  Yes,  this 
is  a  man  who,  regarded  as  miserable,  seems  most  miserable,  or,  as  for- 
tunate, most  fortunate." — Gregorovius. 

On  regaining  the  high  road,  we  must  (before  returning  to 
Sora)  turn  to  the  left  for  about  half  a  mile,  to  visit  the  won- 
derfully beautiful  Falls  of  the  Liris  at  Isola.  The  cascade 
(greatly  increased  by  the  draining  of  the  Lago  Fucino)  falls 
in  a  mass  of  water,  encircled  by  smaller  streams,  from  beneath 
an  old  castle,  almost  into  the  midst  of  the  picturesque  town 
of  Isola.  The  colour  is  really  glorious,  and  the  Iris  is  even 
more  beautiful  than  that  of  Terni. 

(It  is  a  pleasant  drive  of  13  miles  from  Isola  down  the 
valley  of  the  Liris  to  the  station  of  Rocca-Secca  on  the  line 
from  Naples  to  Rome.  Arce  (seven  miles  from  Arpino)  is 
seen  upon  the  left:  it  is  supposed  to  be  identical  with 
Arca7ium,  where  Quintus  Cicero  had  a  villa.*  Rocca-Secca, 
high  on  the  mountain-side,  is  falsely  mentioned  by  many 
authors  as  the  birthplace  of  S.  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  was 

*  Cicero  ad  Q.  Fr.  iii.  i,  9.    Ad  Att.  v.  x; 


ATmA.  M63 

bom  in  the  family  house  at  Aquino.  The  Counts  of  Aquino 
had  a  fortress  at  Rocca-Secca,  but  it  was  never  used  as  a 
residence.) 

It  is  a  deHghtful  drive  of  about  five  hours  from  Sora  to 
S.  Germano.  Four  miles  from  Sora,  on  the  left,  was  once 
the  little  Lake  of  La  Posta^  but  it  has  been  entirely  drained, 
to  the  great  detriment  of  the  scenery.  As  we  approach 
Atina  many  ruined  tombs  appear  near  the  road-side. 

Atina  occupies  a  striking  position  on  a  hill,  and  is  ap- 
proached by  a  beautiful  ascent  through  rocks  and  trees.  It 
has  an  old  castle,  with  a  Roman  statue  and  other  fragments 
built  into  its  walls.  The  position  strikingly  resembles  that 
of  Arpino.  The  Volscian  city  occupied  the  other  apex  of 
the  double  hill,  and  is  approached  by  a  very  steep  rocky 
path,  almost  a  staircase,  beginning  behind  a  convent,  oppo- 
site the  gate  of  the  later  town.  It  has  a  double  platform, 
guarded  by  two  ranges  of  ancient  walls,  and  at  the  summit  is 
the  citadel.  Antiquaries  suggest  fragments  of  masonry  as 
representing  temples,  &c.,  but  they  are  very  obscure.  The 
situation  is  most  imposing,  girt  in  by  rocks  and  with  views 
into  the  depths  of  wild  mountain  gorges. 

Pietro  Diacono  declares  Atina  to  have  been  the  oldest  of 
cities,  having  been  "  built  by  King  Saturnus,  after  he  was 
expelled  by  his  son  Jupiter."  Martial  speaks  of  its  age  in  his 
epigram  on  Marius  Atinates. 

*'  Mari,  quietae  cultor  et  comes  vitae, 
Quo  cive  prisca  gloriatur  Atina." 

X.  92, 

In  some  of  its  old  inscriptions  the  town  is  called  "  Atina 
Satumi  filia."    The  place  must  have  been  of  great  strength, 


204  ^A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

and  is  mentioned  as  "  Atina  potens"  by  Virgil  (^n.  vii.). 
After  leaving  this  ancient  city,  there  is  nothing  more  to  be 
seen,  till,  on  descending  to  the  plain,  and  turning  the 
shoulder  of  the  hills,  the  great  convent  of  Monte  Cassino 
and  the  castle  of  Rocca  Janula  below  it  are  discovered  upon 
the  right. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 
MONTE  CASSINO. 

THE  great  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino  is  now  brought 
within  a  few  hours  of  Rome  by  the  station  of  S.  Ger- 
man© on  the  Naples  railway.  Though  it  is  bereaved  oY  its 
former  splendours,  strangers  are  still  hospitably  received  with- 
in its  walls.  All  travellers  should  visit  it,  for  those  who  are 
careless  of  its  sacred  memories  and  historical  associations, 
will  find  sufficient  to  delight  them  in  its  architectural 
features,  and  in  its  position,  which  is  one  of  the  finest  in 
Europe. 

The  railway  to  S.  German©  has  been  already  described  in 
preceding  chapters  as  far  as  Frosinone.  The  next  station, 
Ceccano,  is  at  the  foot  of  a  town  which  is,  externally,  perhaps 
the  most  picturesque  on  the  whole  line.  On  the  left  bank  of 
the  river  was  the  site  of  I'abrateria  Veins. 

Ceprano  (distant  2  J  miles  from  the  station)  has  an  old 
castle  which  was  the  scene  of  several  events  in  Papal  history. 
Paschal  H.  lived  here  while  he  was  quarrelling  with  Henry 
IV. :  here  Lucius  II.  had  his  interview  with  Roger  of  Sicily ; 
and  hither  the  cardinals  came  to  welcome  Gregory  X.  as 
Pope.    Here,  in  1266,  the  Count  of  Caserta,  left  by  Manfred 


2o6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

to  defend  the  passage  of  the  Garigliano,  fled  at  the  approach 
of  Charles  of  Anjou. 

*'E  I'altra,  il  cui  ossame  si  accoglie 
A  Ceperan,  la,  dove  fu  bugiardo 
Ciascun  Puglicse. 

Dante,  Inf.  xxviii.  15. 

Crossing  the  Liris,  we  pass  near  the  site  of  the  Volscian 
Fregellcc^  which  was  colonized  by  Rome  b.  c.  328.  It  was 
destroyed  in  consequence  of  a  rebellion  in  B.C.  125,  and 
Fabrateria  Nova  founded  in  its  stead. 

We  now  pass  Rocca-Secca  (described  Ch.  XVII.),  and 
leave,  to  the  right,  the  ruins  of  Aquino  (see  Ch.  XXIX.). 

From  a  great  distance,  the  convent  of  Monte  Cassino  is 
visible,  rising  on  the  hill-top  above  the  plain  of  the  Garigli- 
ano. As  we  come  nearer,  we  see  the  splendid  old  castle 
of  Rocca  Janula,  half-way  up  the  ascent,  surrounded  with 
towers,  embattled  and  crenellated,  and  connected  by  a  long 
line  of  turretted  wall  with  the  town  of  San  Germano  at  its 
feet. 

San  Germano  *  is  wonderfully  picturesque.  It  occupies 
the  site  of  the  Roman  Casinum,  which  Strabo  describes  as 
the  last  town  of  Latium  on  the  Latin  way.  Livy  (XXII.) 
tells  how  Hannibal  intended  occupying  it  to  prevent  the 
consul  Fabius  from  advancing  on  Campania;  but  was  led 
by  a  mistake  of  his  guide  to  Casilinum.  Silius  Italicus  speaks 
of  its  springs  : 

"  Nymphisque  habitata  Casinis 
Rura  evastantur." 

xii.  527. 

and  of  its  foggy  climate  : 

*  The  inn  is  the  Albergo  Pompei,  a  very  clean,  comfortable,  pretty  little  hotel  in 
a  garden,  indeed  one  of  the  best  country  inns  in  Italy.  Double-bedded  rooms  3 
francs,  single  rooms  a  francs,  dinner  3  francs.    These  prices  should  be  maintained. 


AMPHITHEATRE  OF  S.   GERMANO.  207 

*•  et  nebulosi  rura  Casini." 

iv.  227. 

Casinum  continued  to  flourish  under  the  empire,  but  was 
destroyed  by  the  Lombards  in  the  6th  century.  Its  modern 
name  of  S.  Germano  is  derived  from  a  holy  bishop  of  Capua, 
a  contemporary  and  friend  of  S.  Benedict. 

About  half  a  mile  from  the  town,  just  above  the  high  road 
from  S.  Germano  to  Rome,  is  the  principal  relic  of  Casinum, 
an  Amphitheatre^  small,  but  very  perfect  externally,  built,  as 
an  inscription  *  narrates,  at  the  private  expense  of  Numidia 
Quadratilla,  whose  life  and  death  are  celebrated  by  Pliny 
the  younger. t   The  interior  is  an  utter  ruin. 

Above  the  Amphitheatre  is  the  little  Church  of  the  Crocifisso^ 
occupying  an  ancient  tomb  which  is  shown  as  that  of  Nu- 
midia Quadratilla.  It  is  cruciform  with  a  dome  in  the  centre, 
and  much  resembles  the  tomb  of  Galla  Placidia  at  Ravenna. 
The  blocks  of  stone  in  the  entrance-walls  are  colossal.  At 
the  head  of  the  steps  in  front  of  the  church  is  a  sacrificial 
altar.  The  hermit  who  takes  care  of  the  tomb  has  a  school 
above  it.  Immediately  beneath  are  the  vast  remains  of  the 
Seminary  of  Monte  Cassino,  occupying  the  site  of  the  histori- 
cal convent  Plumbariola.  They  enclose  a  courtyard,  ^vith  a 
well  and  an  old  fig-tree.  The  surrounding  corridors  remind 
one,  on  a  small  scale,  of  the  Coliseum  before  the  spoliations 
of  Rosa.  A  little  beyond,  on  the  side  of  the  mountain,  is  a 
garden  of  Indian  figs,  with  quite  a  settlement  of  small  houses 
amongst  the  great  cactus  plants.  The  view  in  returning  to 
S.  Germano  is  most  beautiful. 

Near  the  town,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Fiume  Rapido, 

*  Now  at  Monte  Cassino,  let  into  the  wall  of  a  gallery, 
t  Ep.  vii  24, 


2o8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

are  some  ruins  of  a  Eoman  villa,  supposed  to  be  that  of 
Varro  (called  by  Cicero  "  a  most  conscientious  and  upright 
man"  ),  of  which  he  has  left  us  a  detailed  description  in  his 
Res  Rust.  III.  5.  It  was  here  that  Marc  Antony  indulged 
in  the  orgies,  against  which  Cicero  poured  forth  his  elo- 
quence. 

**  How  many  days  did  he  spend  in  that  villa  in  the  most  scandalous 
revels.  From  morning  onwards  it  was  one  scene  of  drinking,  gambling, 
and  vomiting.  Unhappy  house  !  unhappy  indeed  in  its  change  of 
masters.  For  Marcus  Varro  it  was  a  place  of  studious  seclusion,  not  a 
theatre  for  his  lusts.  What  noble  discussions,  what  high  thoughts,  what 
works  origmated  there  !  The  laws  of  the  Roman  people,  our  ancestral 
traditions,  every  kind  of  scientific  and  learned  theory  !  but  with  you  as 
lis  denizen  (no  master  you)  the  place  resounded  with  drunken  vpices  ; 
the  floors  were  flooded,  and  the  walls  dripped  with  wine  ..." 

Cic.  Phil.  ii.  41. 

The  churches  of  San  Germano,  though  modernized,  are 
full  of  interest.  The  Collegiata  was  built  by  the  Abbot  Gisulf 
in  the  9th  century,  and,  though  greatly  altered  in  the  17th 
century,  retains  its  twelve  ancient  marble  columns. 

Donkeys  may  be  obtained,  if  desired,  for  the  ascent  to  the 
Monastery,  price  2  frkncs  each.  The  steep  and  stony  path 
winds  above  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  leaving  to  the  right  the 
ruins  of  the  castle  of  Rocca  Janula^  which  was  twice  besieged 
and  taken  by  Frederick  II.  At  each  turn  of  the  path  the  view 
is  fresh  ;  at  each  it  is  more  beautiful.  We  look  down  upon  the 
purple  valley  through  which  winds  the  silver  thread  of  the 
GarigHano,  and  in  which  Aquino,  Pontecorvo,  and  many  other 
towns  are  lying.  Beyond,  girdling  in  the  plain  on  every  side, 
are  chains  of  mountains,  broken  into  every  conceivable 
form,  every  hue  of  colour  melting  into  the  faintest  blue, 
tossing  far  away   in   billow   upon   billow  of  rocky  surge, 


ASCENT  TO  MONTE  CASSINO. 


TOf) 


crested  or  coated  with  snow.  Sometimes,  as  you  turn  a  cor- 
ner, a  promontor>'  of  rock  juts  out  like  a  vast  buttress, 
covered  with  wood ;  sometimes,  the  path  itself  is  lost  in  the 
deep  thickets  where  only  the  blue  sky  can  be  seen  through 
the  twisted  boughs  of  the  dark  ilexes,  which  open  again  to 
admit  a  new  snow-peak,  or  a  fresh  vista  of  purple  moun- 
tains.    Small  oratories  by  the  wayside  offer  shelter  from 


Castle  of  Rocca  Janula. 


the  wind  and  sun,  and  commemorate  the  Benedictine  story. 
First  we  have  that  of  S.  Placidus,  the  favourite  disciple  of 
the.  patriarch;  then  that  of  S.  Scholastica,  the  beloved 
sister ;  then  a  triple-chapel  where  one  of  the  Benedictine 
miracles  occurred.  Beyond  these,  a  cross  upon  a  plat- 
form marks  the  final  meeting-place  of  Benedict  and  Scho- 
lastica. It  is  not  known  that  the  beloved  twin-sister  of  S. 
Benedict  ever  took  any  vows,  though  she  privately  dedi- 
voL.  II.  14 


210  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

cated  herself  to  God  from  childhood.  When  her  brother 
came  to  his  mountain  monastery,  she  followed  him,  and 
founded  a  religious  house  in  the  valley  below  (it  is  sup- 
posed at  the  spot  called  Plumbariola),  where  she  devoted 
herself  to  a  life  of  prayer  with  a  small  community  of  pious 
women  her  companions. 

*•  There  is  something  striking  in  the  attachment  of  the  brother  and 
sister,  the  human  affection  struggling  with  the  hard  spirit  of  monasti- 
cism.  S.  Scholastica  was  a  female  Benedict.  Equally  devout,  equally 
powerful  in  attracting  and  ruling  the  minds  of  recluses  of  her  own  sex, 
the  remote  foundress  of  convents,  almost  as  numerous  as  those  of  her 
brother's  rule.  With  the  most  perfect  harmony  of  disposition,  one  in 
holiness,  one  in  devotion,  they  were  of  different  sexes  and  met  but  once 
a  year." — Milman, 

It  was  here  that  they  met  for  the  last  time  and  passed  the 
day  together  in  pious  exercises.  At  this  last  interview  Scholas- 
tica implored  Benedict  to  remain  with  her  till  the  morning, 
that  they  might  praise  God  through  the  night ;  but  the  saint 
refused,  saying  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  be  absent 
from  his  convent.  Then  Scholastica  bent  over  her  clasped 
hands  and  prayed,  and,  though  the  weather  was  beautiful 
and  there  was  not  a  cloud  in  the  sky,  the  rain  began  imme- 
diately to  fall  in  such  torrents,  accompanied  by  thunder  and 
lightning  of  such  a  terrific  kind,  that  neither  Benedict  nor  the 
brethren  who  were  with  him  could  leave  the  place  where 
they  were.  "  The  Lprd  be  merciful  to  you,  my  sister,"  said 
the  Abbot,  "  what  have  you  done."  **  You  have  rejected  my 
prayers,"  answered  Scholastica,  "  but  God  has  been  more  mer- 
ciful," and  thus  the  brother  and  sister  remained  together  till  the 
morning.  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  who  tells  the  story,  says 
that  one  must  not  be  surprised  that  the  wish  of  the  sister 
was  heard  by  God  rather  than  that  of  the  brother,  because,  of 


ASCENT  TO  MONTE  CASSINO.  2ii 

the  two,  the  sister  was  the  one  who  loved  him  the  most,  and 
with  God  the  one  who  loves  the  most  is  always  the  most 
powerful. 

As  we  draw  nearer  the  convent,  we  find  a  cross  in  the 
middle  of  the  way.  In  front  of  it,  a  grating  covers  the  mark 
of  a  knee  which  is  said  to  have  been  left  in  the  rock  by  St. 
Benedict  when  he  knelt  there  to  ask  a  blessing  before  laying 
the  foundation-stone  of  his  convent. 

Benedict  came  hither  from  Subiaco,  when  he  had  already 
been  36  years  a  monk,  led  through  the  windings  of  the 
Apennines,  says  the  tradition,  alternately  by  two  angels  and 
two  birds,  till  he  reached  this  spur  of  the  mountain  above  Ca- 
sinum,  which  had  then  already  been  ruined  by  Genseric. 
Strange  to  say,  the  inhabitants  of  this  wild  district  were,  in 
the  sixth  century  of  Christianity,  still  Pagan,  and  worshipped 
Apollo  in  a  temple  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  where  also 
was  a  grove  sacred  to  Venus.  Gregory  the  Great  wrote  that 
which  he  was  told  by  four  of  Benedict's  disciples,  three  of 
whom  succeeded  him  in  the  government  of  the  monastery, 
and  one  of  whom,  Honoratus,  was  abbot  at  the  time  : 

"The  holy  man  (Benedict)  in  changing  his  home  changed  not  his 
foe.  Nay,  rather  his  conflict  grew  the  more  severe,  inasmuch  as  he 
found  the  author  of  evil  himself  openly  warring  against  him.  The 
strong  place  called  Cassino  is  situated  on  the  side  of  a  lofty  mountain 
which  enfolds  the  fort  in  a  broad  hollow ;  the  mountain  itself  rears  its 
peak  three  miles  into  the  air.  Here  stood  a  very  ancient  temple, 
in  which  Apollo  was  worshipped  in  heathen  fashion  by  the  foolish 
country  folk.  Groves  too,  devoted  to  devil-worship,  had  grown  up  on 
every  side,  in  which  even  still  the  folly  of  a  crowd  of  misbelievers  kept 
up  blasphemous  sacrifices.  Hither  came  the  man  of  God,  brake  in 
pieces  the  idol,  overthrew  the  altar,  burnt  down  the  grove,  and  in 
Apollo's  own  temple  set  up  a  chapel  to  St.  Martin,  and,  where  the 
altar  of  the  god  had  stood,  a  chapel  to  St.  John.  Here  he  tarried,  and 
by  preaching  the  gospel  far  and  near  brought  over  a  host  of  converts  to 


212  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  Faith.  This  was  more  than  his  old  enemy  could  quietly  bear.  So 
now,  not  secretly,  nor  in  dreams,  but  quite  openly  he  presented  himself 
before  the  saint,  and  with  great  shouts  complained  that  violence  was 
being  done  him.  To  whom  the  holy  man  answered  never  a  word,  tho' 
the  fiend  taunted  him  saying,  *'  No  Benedict,  but  Maledict  thou  ! 
What  hast  thou  to  do  with  me,  why  persecutest  thou  me  ?  " 

S.  Gregory  the  Great^  ii.  8. 

Dante  writes  in  allusion  to  this  : 

"  Quel  monte,  a  cui  Cassino  e  nella  costa, 
Fu  frequentato  gia  in  su  la  cima 
Dalla  gente  ingannata  e  mal  disposta. 

Ed  io  son  quel  che  su  vi  portai  prima 
Lo  nome  di  Colui  che'n  terra  addusse 
La  verita,  che  tanto  ci  sublima  ; 

E  tanta  grazia  sovra  me  rilusse, 
Ch'io  ritrassi  le  ville  circostanti 
Dall  'empio  culto  che'l  mondo  sedusse." 

Par.  xxii. 

Seated  on  the  greensward  in  front  of  the  convent,  with 
the  glorious  vi^w  before  us,  it  will  be  interesting,  before  we 
enter  the  monastery,  to  go  back  to  its  story. 

According  to  a  bull  of  Pope  Zacharias  of  748,  the  abbey  was 
built  on  land  of  TertuUus,  father  of  the  young  Placidus,  one 
of  the  favourite  disciples  of  S.  Benedict.  The  Patriarch  was 
probably  attracted  to  that  especial  spot  by  the  desire  of 
attacking  Paganism  in  one  of  its  last  strongholds,  by  cutting 
down  the  grove  of  Venus,  and  destroying  the  temple  of 
Apollo.  He  worked  with  his  own  hands  at  the  building,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  fought  in  person  with  the  Evil  One,  who 
tried  to  interfere  with  his  work,  and  to  have  subdued  him 
when  he  had  successfully  disinterred  unhurt  one  of  his  monks 
whom  the  arch-enemy  had  buried  under  a  fallen  wall. 

On  the  site  of  the  temple,  Benedict  built  two  oratories, 
one  to  St.  John  Baptist  the  first  hermit,  the  other  to  St.  Mar- 


RULE  OF  S.  BENEDICT.  213 

tin  the  famous  monk-bishop  of  Gaul.  Around  them,  he 
erected  dwellings  for  his  disciples,  with  mills,  store-houses, 
and  all  necessary  buildings,  so  that  everything  required  for 
daily  life  might  be  found  within  the  walls  of  the  monastery. 
"  Here  the  monastic  life,"  according  to  the  expression  of 
Pope  Urban  II.,  "  flowed  from  the  heart  of  Benedict  as  from 
the  fountain  of  Paradise,"  *  for  here  he  composed  the  famous 
Kule  of  his  Order. 

The  Rule  of  S.  Benedict  was  founded  on  the  original 
observance  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience,  said  to  have 
been  delivered  to  Pachomius  for  the  use  of  the  eastern  her- 
mits by  an  angel,  but  to  this  he  added  many  details  to  fit  it 
for  a  community  residing  together. 

The  Rule  is  divided  into  73  chapters ;  9  are  on  the 
respective  duties  of  the  abbot  and  monks;  13  on  divine 
worship  ;  29  on  discipline — offences  and  their  punishments  ; 
10  upon  the  internal  administration  of  the  monastery;  12 
on  different  subjects,  such  as  the  reception  of  strangers,  the 
conduct  to  be  observed  by  the  brethren  when  travelling,  &c. 

The  Rule  had  two  great  principles — constant  action  and 
implicit  obedience.  S.  Benedict  did  not  wish  that  his  monks 
should  confine  themselves  to  meditation  or  the  internal 
action  of  the  soul,  but  insisted  upon  constant  outward  action 
either  of  manual  or  literary  labour.  Idleness,  he  averred, 
was  the  great  enemy  of  the  soul.  Every  hour  of  the  day  was 
to  be  employed  as  the  seasons  permitted,  and  as  the  praises, 
of  God  were  to  be  sung  seven  times  a  day,  so  seven  hours 
of  the  day  were  to  be  devoted  to  active  labour.     If  any 


•  "  Ipse  omnium  monachorum  pater,  et  Casinense  monasterium  caput  omnium  per- 
petuo  habeatur  et  merito,  nam  ex  eodem  loco  de  Benedict!  pectore  monastic!  ordinis 
religio  quasi  de  Paradisi  fonte  eniaiiavit."— ifw/Za  Urbani,  adcale.  Chron.  Casintn. 


214  ^A  yS  NEAR  ROME. 

monk  boasted  of  his  own  proficiency  in  any  occupation,  that 
occupation  was  to  be  changed,  that  it  might  not  be  a  snare 
to  him.     Those  who  sold  the  produce  of  the  lands  of  the 
convent,  were   always   to   sell  a  little  cheaper  than  their 
neighbours,  for  the  love  of  God.     The  patrician  youths  who 
joined  the  community  were  in  all  things  to  live  on  equal 
terms  with  the  peasant  monks  :    there  was  to  be  no  distinc- 
tion of  persons.     Obedience  in  the  eyes  of  Benedict  was  a 
work — "obedientise  laborem."    A  monk  only  entered  the 
convent  by  a  voluntary  sacrifice  of  self,  he  renounced  self 
utterly,  to  fix   his    soul  entirely  on    God.     To  the  monk 
his   superior  was   to   be  God's   earthly  representative :    to 
him  his   obedience  was  to   be   prompt,  perfect,   absolute. 
Obedience  was  the  first  step  of  humifity.     "Our   life   in 
this  world,"  said  Benedict,  "  is  like  the  ladder  which  Jacob 
saw  in  his  dream  :    in   order   that  it  may  reach  heaven, 
it  must  be  planted  by  the  Saviour  in  a  humbled  heart :  we 
can  only  mount  by  the   different   steps   of  humiHty  and 
discipline."    Difficult  as  it  may  seem  to  others,  the  founder 
asserted  that  he  believed  his  Rule  contained  nothing  too 
hard  or  too  difficult  to  follow,  and  ended  by  saying  that  it 
was   but   "  a  little   beginning,   a  modest  introduction   to 
Christian  perfection." — ''Initium  conversationis  .  .  .  hanc 
minimam  inchoationis  regulam." 

Thirteen  hundred  years  have  passed  away  since  the  Rule 
of  Benedict  was  laid  down,  yet  no  change  has  been  made  in 
it  by  his  followers.  The  only  reforms  have  led  back  to  a 
more  exact  observance  of  the  code  which  the  founder  drew 
up. 

St.  Gregory  the  Great,  who  has  left  us  a  biography  of  S. 
Benedict,   describes  his  life   at    Monte  Cassino,  how    he 


CHARACTER  OF  S.  BENEDICT.  aij^ 

devoted  himself  to  the  sick ;  how  he  paid  the  debts  of 
honest  people  oppressed  by  their  creditors  ;  how  in  a  year 
of  famine  (a.  d.  539)  he  distributed  the  wealth  of  the  con- 
vent to  the  poor,  and  how,  when  the  monks  murmured  at 
being  deprived  themselves,  he  said — "  You  have  not  enough 
to-day,  but  to-morrow  you  will  have  too  much  " — and  on  the 
morrow  so  much  corn  was  brought  to  the  convent  doors  by 
unknown  hands,  that  they  had  not  room  to  stow  it  away. 

The  real  feeling  of  humility  which  actuated  the  life  of 
Benedict,  often  impelled  a  line  of  conduct  very  different  to 
that  which  in  later  and  more  corrupt  times  has  found  favour 
with  his  followers.  Thus,  when  he  heard  that  Martino,  an 
old  hermit,  in  a  cave  on  the  mountain-slope,  not  content 
with  shutting  himself  up  in  a  narrow  cell,  had  chained  him- 
self to  the  rock,  he  went  to  him  and  said — "  If  you  are 
indeed  a  servant  of  God,  you  will  not  be  satisfied  with  a 
chain  of  iron,  but  will  seek  rather  for  the  chain  of  Christ." 

It  is  said  that  the  wonderful  ascendancy  which  S.  Bene- 
dict obtained  over  his  followers  was  greatly  assisted  by  his 
gift  of  second-sight. 

•*  Habitue  \  se  vaincre  en  tout  et  k  lutter  avec  las  esprits  infemaux, 
dont  les  tentations  et  les  apparitions  ne  lui  manquerent  pas  plus  qu'aux 
anciens  Peres  du  desert,  il  avait  acquis  le  don  de  lire  dans  les  ames  et  de 
discerner  leurs  plus  secretes  pensees.  II  n'en  usait  pas  seulement  pour 
diriger  les  jeunes  religieux,  dout  I'affluence  etait  toujours  grande  aupres 
de  lui,  dans  leurs  etudes  et  dans  les  travaux  d'agriculture  et  de  maQon- 
nerie  qu'il  partageait  avec  eux  :  dans  les  courses  lointaines  qu'ils  avaient 
parfois  k  accomplir  il  les  suivait  par  un  regard  interieur,  decouvrait  leurs 
moindres  manquements,  les  reprimandait  au  retour,  les  astreignait  en 
tout  k  la  stricte  observance  de  la  regie  qu'ils  avaient  acceptee.  II 
exigealt  de  tous  I'obeissance,  la  sincerite,  I'austere  regularite  dont  il 
donnait  le  premier  exemple." — Montalembert,  Les  Moines  d  Occident. 

Thus,  when  a  patrician  youth,  whose  business  it  was  to 


2i6  DAYS  NEAR  ROME, 

hold  a  candelabrum  before  the  abbot  while  he  was  at  sup- 
per, complained  inwardly,  saying  to  himself,  "Who  is  this 
man  before  whom  I  must  hold  a  candle ;  was  I  made  to 
be  his  slave," — Benedict,  reading  his  heart,  rebuked  his 
pride,  and,  bidding  him  deliver  the  candle  to  another,  sent 
him  humbled  to  his  cell.  The  fame  of  this  apparently 
supernatural  power  of  Benedict  reached  the  ears  of  Totila, 
the  Ostrogoth  (in  542),  and  he  determined  to  test  it.  He 
dressed  up  one  of  his  chieftains,  Riggo,  in  his  royal  robes, 
and  sent  him  to  the  monastery  with  a  large  suite.  Bene- 
dict, seated  here  before  the  convent  door,  saw  the  party 
approaching,  and  looking  up  from  his  book  said,  "  My  son, 
take  off  those  robes  which  you  are  wearing,  for  they  are  not 
thine."  Riggo,  overwhelmed  with  amazement,  knelt  before 
the  monk,  and  then  returning  to  Totila,  brought  him  to  the 
abbey,  where  he  also  fell  prostrate  before  Benedict  and 
implored  his  blessing.  The  Abbot  having  thrice  in  vain  bade 
him  arise,  lifted  him  up,  and  then,  having  reproached  him 
with  his  outrages,  addressed  him  in  prophetic  tones,  saying, 
"  Thou  shalt  enter  Rome,  thou  shalt  pass  over  the  sea,  thou 
shalt  reign  for  nine  years,  but  in  the  tenth  year  thou  shalt 
die  and  be  summoned  before  the  judgment-seat  of  God." 
All  this  came  to  pass,  and  the  greater  humanity  of  Totila 
during  the  last  years  of  his  life  is  attributed  to  this  inter- 
view. 

In  the  same  way  Benedict  prophesied  to  Sabinus,  Bishop 
of  Canossa,  the  awful  storm  which  should  nearly  destroy 
Rome  in  559  ;  and  when  the  patrician  Theoprobus,  finding 
him  overwhelmed  with  grief,  asked  the  cause,  he  foretold, 
with  many  tears,  the  destruction  of  his  own  monastery  by  the 
Lombards  40  years  after  his  death. 


ENTRANCE  OF  MONTE  CASSINO.  217 

Of  the  many  stories  of  S.  Benedict,  one  is  especially  con- 
nected with  the  gate  of  Monte  Cassino. 

"One  day  the  Patriarch  was  seated  at  the  gate  of  his  monastery 
reading,  when  a  Gothic  captain  rode  up  with  a  poor  peasant,  whose 
arms  were  tightly  bound,  and  whom  the  soldier  fiercely  drove  before 
him.  *  There  (said  the  peasant)  is  father  Benedict,'  and  the  Goth  inso- 
lently commanded  him  to  give  up  the  property  of  the  poor  man,  which 
the  captive,  hoping  to  procure  respite  from  torture,  declared  to  have 
been  committed  to  his  keeping.  The  saint  made  no  answer,  but  calmly 
looked  up  from  his  book,  fixing  his  eyes  on  both  ;  before  that  gaze  the 
peasant's  bonds  fell  off ;  before  that  gaze  the  soldier  trembled,  repented, 
and  at  last  knelt  on  the  ground,  beseeching  pardon  from  the  aged  saint, 
who  raised  him  up,  admonished  him  to  turn  from  evil  and  use  mercy, 
then  gave  him  food  and  drink  in  the  monastery,  and  dismissed  him  with 
a  blessing.  There  are  few  scenes  in  hagiography  more  fraught  with  moral, 
or  that  suggest  so  fine  a  subject  for  the  artist — the  monastic  buildings 
on  the  mountain,  the  Abbot  seated  outside  with  his  scroll,  the  barbaric 
captain  and  the  frightened  peasant,  and  the  serene  glory  of  Italian  sun- 
set above." — Hemans'  Ancient  Christianity. 

We  enter  the  abbey  by  a  gate  guarded  by  two  lions,  and 
ascend  a  low  vaulted  staircase,  the  only  portions  of  the  build- 
ing which  can  be  assigned  to  the  time  of  Benedict. 

On  the  right  a  lamp  bums  before  an  old  marble  statue  of 
Benedict :  at  the  top  Benedict  and  Scholastica  kneel  before 
the  Virgin  and  Child.  Here  the  poor  peasants  of  the 
neighbourhood  in  their  wonderful  costumes, — some  quite 
Egyptian-looking,  assemble  to  receive  the  dole  of  the  con- 
vent. 

The  low  vault  of  the  entrance  was  intended  to  show 
the  yoke  of  humility  to  which  the  entering  monk  must  bend. 
It  is  inscribed :  Fornicem  sax  is  asperum  ac  depressum  ta?itcB 
moli  aditum  angustum  7ie  inireris,  hospes,  aiigustum  fecit  pa- 
triarchy sand  it  as :  venerare  potius  et  sospes  ingredere.  Above 
the  gate  is  a  square  tower  (modernized  externally)  of  which 


2i8  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  lower  portion  at  least  is  of  the  same  age.  It  contains 
two  chambers  inscribed  :  Pars  inferior  turris,  in  qua  S.  P. 
N.  Benedidus  dwn  viverat  habitabat :  and,  Vetustissimum 
habitaculum  ift  quo  SSmi  patriarchcE  discipuli  quiescebant. 

This  then  at  least  occupies  the  position  of  the  cell  where 
S.  Benedict  dwelt  for  23  years  (520-43),  and  which,  as  the 
source  of  monastic  law,  Pope  Victor  III.  has  not  hesitated 
to  compare  to  Sinai. 

Hsec  domus  est  similis  Sinai  sacra  jura  ferenti, 
Ut  lex  demonstrat  hie  quae  fuit  edita  quondam. 
Lex  hinc  exivit,  mentes  quae  ducit  ab  imis, 
Et  Yulgata  dedit  lumen  par  climata  SKcli.* 

The  room  in  the  upper  part  of  the  tower  is  shown  as  that 
in  which  Benedict  saw  in  a  vision  the  death  of  the  bishop  St. 
Germano.  Here  also,  only  two  days  after  his  last  and  miracu- 
lously-prolonged interview  with  her,  he  saw  the  soul  of  his 
sister  Scholastica  ascending  as  a  dove  to  heaven,  and  becom- 
ing thus  aware  of  her  death  and  translation  "  was  filled  with 
joy,  and  his  gratitude  flowed  forth  in  hymns  and  praises  to 
God."  He  then  begged  the  monks  to  fetch  her  body  that 
it  might  be  laid  in  the  tomb  in  which  he  should  rest  himself. 

The  brother  only  survived  the  sister  for  forty  days,  days 
spent  in  the  most  austere  observance  of  his  own  monastic 
rule.  Feeling  his  end  approaching,  he  bade  the  monks  to 
carry  him  to  the  oratory  of  S.  John  Baptist,  where  he  caused 
the  tomb  of  his  sister  to  be  opened.  Resting  by  its  side,  at 
the  foot  of  the  altar,  he  received  the  viaticum,  and  then,  ex- 
tending his  hands  to  heaven,  he  died  in  the  arms  of  his  com- 
panions, March  21,  543,  at  the  very  hour,  which,  according 
to  the  legend,  he  had  foretold.     Benedict  was  laid  by  Scho- 

■  ♦  Leo  Ostiensis.    Chron.  Casinen.  iii.  27. 


STORY  OF  MONTE  CASSINO,  219 

Ustica,  "  so  that  death  might  not  divide  those  whose  soufs 
had  been  united  in  God." 

The  death  of  Benedict  is  said  to  have  been  miraculously 
revealed,  at  the  very  moment,  to  his  disciple  Maurus,  then  at 
Auxerre,  who  fell  into  a  trance  and  beheld  a  path  of  stars 
making  a  luminous  way  from  Monte  Cassino  to  heaven,  while 
a  mysterious  voice  announced  that  by  that  shining  way  the 
soul  of  the  Patriarch  had  passed  into  bliss. 

"Le  recit  legendaire  ajoute  que  plusieurs  religieux  de  saint  Benoit, 
en  ce  moment  eloignes  du  Mont-Cassin,  furent  avertis  de  la  perte  qu'ils 
venaient  de  faire  par  une  revelation,  et  qu'ils  virent  une  multitude 
d'etoiles  former  un  long  chemin,  qui  montait  vers  I'Orient.  Vive  et 
fidele  image  du  sillon  lumineux  que  devait  tracer  le  genie  benedictin, 
en  eclairant  tour  i  tour  les  tenebres  du  moyen  age  et  la  civilisation  des 
temps  modemes." — Alphonse  Dantier. 

Forty  years  after  the  death  of  S.  Benedict,  Monte  Cassino 
was  laid  in  ruins  by  the  Lombards,  and  lay  waste  for  more 
than  150  years,  during  which  time  the  monks  took  refuge  in 
Rome,  where  a  house  was  allotted  them  near  S.  John 
Lateran.  In  731  the  Abbot  Petronax  rebuilt  the  monastery, 
and  the  Duke  of  Beneventum  restored  its  lands  which  had 
been  confiscated.  The  new  church  was  consecrated  by  Pope 
Zacharias  in  748,  when  he  freed  the  patrimony  of  Monte 
Cassino  from  all  episcopal  jurisdiction,  and  gave  its  abbot 
the  first  rank  after  the  bishops,  in  all  councils  and  public 
assemblies.  A  diploma,  still  preserved  at  Monte  Cassino, 
tells  how  at  this  time  the  Pope  looked  with  j^eneration  upon 
the  uncorrupt  bodies  of  S.  Benedict  and  Santa  Scholastica, 
but  did  not  venture  to  touch  them  with  his  hand. 

In  this  same  year  of  748,  Carloman,  brother  of  Pepin 
king  of  France,  having  first  made  a  retreat  on  Soracte, 


220  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

became  a  monk  of  Monte  Cassino.  To  test  his  humility,  the 
Abbot  made  him  the  shepherd  of  a  flock  of  goats  on  the 
mountain-side.  He  left  this  humble  occupation  to  act  as 
mediator  between  his  brother  Pepin  and  Astolphus  king  of 
the  Lombards,  and  died  in  a  monastery  at  Vienne,  though  his 
remains  were  transported,  by  his  own  desire,  to  Monte 
Cassino. 

Another  monarch  was  at  this  time  a  monk  of  Monte 
Cassino,  Ratchis,  king  of  the  Lombards,  who  had  resigned 
his  crown  in  742.  His  wife  Tasia  and  his  daughter  Rattru- 
dis  followed  him,  and  refounded  in  the  valley  the  monastery 
of  Plumbariola,  which  had  been  first  set  on  foot  by  Scholas- 
tica.  The  monk-king  occupied  his  leisure  moments  in  the 
cultivation  of  a  garden  on  the  western  side  of  the  mountain, 
which  was  long  known  as  "  the  vineyard  of  Ratchis." 

At  the  end  of  the  same  century,  Charlemagne  visited 
Monte  Cassino,  and  accorded  it  a  variety  of  privileges  men- 
tioned in  a  document  in  the  archives.  He  gave  to  the  monks 
the  title  of  "  Chaplains  of  the  Empire."  The  Abbot  was  to 
be  called  "  Arch-chancellor  "  and  "  Custos  of  the  Imperial 
Palace " ;  he  was  entitled  to  drink  out  of  gold,  to  have  his 
bed  covered  with  purple,  and  to  have  the  imperial  Labanim, 
or  a  gold  cross  studded  with  gems,  carried  before  him.  On 
his  return  to  France,  Charlemagne  addressed  to  the  Abbot  a 
poetical  letter  in  25  hexameters,  which  is  preserved  in  the 
monastic  library.  It  is  said  in  proof  of  the  prevalence  of  the 
Benedictine  Rul^  at  this  time,  that  when  Charlemagne  asked 
if  in  any  parts  of  his  vast  dominions  monks  of  other  Orders 
existed,  none  were  to  be  found. 

Under  the  Abbot  Gisulf,  the  community  became  so 
numerous  that  it  was  necessary  to  provide  for  them  by  large 


STORY  OF  MONTE  CASSINO.         '  221 

buildings  at  S.  Germane,  and  the  church  built  at  this  time 
still  remains.  But  this  prosperity  was  of  short  duration, 
for  the  convent  was  attacked  and  taken  by  Saracens  in 
884,  shortly  after  the  Emperor  Louis  II.  and  his  wife  Engel- 
burga  (coming  against  the  Saracens  in  Calabria)  had  been 
magnificently  received  there.  All  the  monks  who  were  de- 
fending the  walls  were  put  to  the  sword.  The  Abbot  Ber- 
thaire  was  absent  at  the  time,  but  when  the  enemy  had  retired 
for  a  time,  he  returned  to  bury  his  slaughtered  brethren. 
Shortly  afterwards  the  Saracens  returned  to  attack  the  con- 
vent in  the  valley,  where  many  monks  flying  from  other  mon- 
asteries had  taken  refuge.  S.  Berthaire  refused  to  desert 
them,  and  he  and  all  his  monks  were  massacred  in  the 
church,  as  he  was  elevating  the  Host,  and  the  convent  was 
pillaged  and  destroyed. 

The  small  remnant  of  monks  took  refuge  at  Teano,  where 
their  misfortunes  seemed  to  come  to  a  climax,  when  the 
manuscript  Rule  of  S.  Benedict  was  destroyed  by  fire. 

But  in  949  Monte  Cassino  was  rebuilt  by  the  Abbot 
Aligerus,  and  became  richer  than  ever,  the  Emperor  Otho 
the  Great,  Henry  II.  (cured  of  an  illness  by  intercession  of 
S.  Benedict),  Conrad  II.,  and  Henry  III.  (pilgrims  to  Monte 
Cassino),  having  increased  its  privileges  and  added  to  its 
donations.  Puffed  up  by  his  vast  wealth,  the  Abbot  Manson 
lived  like  a  prince,  hunted  with  a  vast  retinue  of  knights, 
and  dressed  all  his  servants  in  silk.  To  visit  him  came 
S.  Nilus  the  hermit,  but,  while  waiting  for  the  abbot  in  the 
conventual  church,  he  heard  the  gay  sounds  of  a  harp  and 
singing  from  the  hall  where  the  monks  were  at  dinner,  and 
said  to  his  companions,  "  Come,  let  us  leave  this  house 
upon  which  the  wrath  of  God  must  shortly  fall."  Within  the 


222  •  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

year,  Alberic,  Bishop  of  Marsia,  having  determined  in  those 
licentious  times  to  give  up  his  episcopal  see  to  one  of  his 
illegitimate  sons,  wished  to  compensate  himself  with  the 
abbey  of  Monte  Cassino.  So,  with  loo  pieces  of  silver,  he 
bribed  the  inhabitants  of  Capua,  who  had  a  spite  of  their 
own  against  Manson,  to  put  out  his  eyes,  and  to  seize  the 
monastery  for  him.  They  beguiled  the  abbot  into  the 
church  of  S.  Benedetto  at  Capua,  and,  gouging  his  eyes,  sent 
them  wrapped  in  a  linen  cloth  to  Alberic,  who  died  sud- 
denly, while  he  was  waiting  to  receive  them. 

Pope  Leo  IX.  visited  Monte  Cassino  accompanied  by  the 
Duke  Godfrey  of  Lorraine  and  his  brother  Frederic,  who, 
taking  the  monastic  habit,  was  elected  abbot  in  the  reign  of 
Victor  IL,  whom,  in  1057,  he  succeeded  upon  the  Papal 
throne  as  Stephen  X.,but  continued  for  some  time  to  reside 
at  Monte  Cassino.  In  107 1  Alexander  II.,  assisted  by  the 
Cardinals  Hildebrand  and  Peter  Damian,  consecrated  the 
new  church  of  Desiderius.  This  abbot  was  the  great  friend 
of  Hildebrand,  and  to  him  the  great  Pope  wrote  his  first  letter 
announcing  his  election  to  the  Papacy.  In  the  Norman  wars 
of  this  reign  Monte  Cassino  played  a  conspicuous  part.  The 
Bishop  of  Rosella  had  taken  a  great  treasure  to  the  tomb  of 
St.  Benedict  for  protection,  and  it  was  seized  by  the  Prince 
of  Capua.  Hildebrand  was  so  furious  at  the  feeble  defence 
the  abbey  had  made,  that  he  placed  it  under  interdict, 
but  the  Prince  of  Capua  restored  the  treasure  under  the 
terrors  of  excommunication.  It  was  Desiderius  who  called 
in  Robert  Guiscard  to  the  aid  of  Hildebrand.  When  the 
Pope  was  compelled  to  leave  Rome,  Desiderius  received  him 
at  Monte  Cassino,  with  all  his  fugitive  cardinals  and  bishops. 
That  night  the  Pope  and  abbot  watched  in  prayer  beside  the 


STORY  OF  MONTE  CASS  I  NO.  223 

tomb  of  the  founder,  and  as  the  morning  dawned,  Hilde- 
brand  cried  in  the  voice  of  prophecy, — "  Abbot  of  Monte 
Cassino,  thou  wilt  be  my  successor."  In  the  following  year 
(1086)  Desiderius  was  elected  to  the  Papal  throne  as  Victor 
Til.  For  a  whole  year  he  refused  the  dignity,  then  the 
Papal  insignia  were  forced  upon  him  in  the  church  of  Sta. 
Lucia.  Four  days  after,  he  fled,  and  laid  them  aside  at 
Monte  Cassino.  The  great  Matilda  of  Tuscany  herself  had 
to  come  to  insist  upon  his  allowing  himself  to  be  re-installed. 
After  a  short  but  momentous  reign,  he  returned  to  die  at 
Monte  Cassino.  In  his  time  the  abbey  may  be  considered 
to  have  reached  the  climax  of  its  glory. 

Under  Urban  II.  (1088-99),  Monte  Cassino  was  visited 
by  Robert  of  Normandy,  Eustace  de  Bouillon,  and  other 
crusading  chiefs  on  their  way  to  Brindisi,  who  came  to 
impart  virtue  to  their  swords  by  touching  with  them  the 
shrine  of  the  saint.  In  the  library  of  the  convent  are  two 
curious  letters  written  about  this  time  by  the  Emperor 
Alexander  Comnenus  to  the  Abbot  Oderiscus,  in  answer  to 
letters  of  his  beseeching  the  favour  of  the  Emperor  towards 
the  Frankish  army. 

In  the  time  of  Paschal  11.(1099 — iioo),  the  abbey  was 
the  scene  of  internal  war,  because  Bruno,  Bishop  of  Segni, 
elected  abbot,  when  warned  by  the  Pope  that  he  could  not 
hold  both  dignities  together,  tried  to  insist  upon  choosing 
his  own  successor.  On  the  death  of  Paschal,  John  of  Gaeta, 
a  monk  of  Monte  Cassino,  was  chosen  Pope  as  Gelasius  II. 
In  the  succeeding  reigns  the  want  of  internal  harmony  in  the 
convent,  and  the  fact  of  the  abbot  siding  with  the  antipope 
Anacletus,  led  to  the  spoliation  of  Monte  Cassino  by  Roger 
of  Sicily.      In  11 99  San  Germane  was  pillaged  by  the  Ger- 


224  -^^  y-S  NEAR  ROME. 

mans  under  die  Seneschal  Markwald  d'Anneweiler ;  but  the 
abbey  was. successfully  defended  by  the  warlike  Abbot  Rof- 
fedo.  In  1208  a  general  assembly  was  convoked  at  S. 
Germano  by  Innocent  III.,  who  loaded  Monte  Cassino  with 
benefits. 

Up  to  this  time  the  sciences  and  high  theological  studies 
had  not  ceased  to  be  cultivated  at  Monte  Cassino.  The 
best  professors  of  the  newly-established  university  of  Naples 
were  chosen  amongst  its  monks.  But  a  few  years  later  the 
university  of  Naples  would  have  vainly  asked  for  theologi- 
cal professors  from  hence.  The  abbey  and  its  neigh- 
bouring fortress  of  Rocca  Janula  were  entirely  occupied  by 
imperial  troops,  and  the  monks  nearly  dispersed.  Their 
school  was  dissolved  and  the  monastic  buildings  turned  into 
a  manufactory  of  arms.*  In  the  words  of  the  abbot  Ber- 
nardo, "  the  house  of  God  became  truly  a  den  of  thieves." 
In  1 25 1  Pope  Alexander  IV.  hoped  to  resuscitate  the  fame 
of  the  abbey,  by  persuading  S.  Thomas  Aqumas,  who  had 
been  educated  within  its  walls,  to  become  its  head,  but  the 
"  Seraphic  Doctor "  never  would  accept  any  ecclesiastical 
promotion.  The  captivity  of  Monte  Cassino  was  brought  to 
an  end  by  the  victory  of  the  French  over  Manfred  at  S. 
Germano  (Feb.  i,  1266)  for  which  Charles  of  Anjou  re- 
turned pubUc  thanks  at  the  tomb  of  S.  Benedict. 

It  is  in  allusion  to  this  time  of  suspended  learning,  at 
Monte  Cassino,  and  to  the  years  of  luxurious  living  which 
followed,  that  Dante  represents  S.  Benedict  in  Paradise  as 
lamenting  that  his  Rule  remains  on  earth  only  to  fill  so  much 
waste  paper,  for  no  one  observes  it. 

*  See  Dantier,  i.  32^ 


LIBRAR  Y  OF  AfOXTE  CASSINO.  22$ 

**  La  regola  mia 
Rimasa  e  giii  per  danno  delle  carte. 
Le  mura,  che  soleano  esser  badia, 
Fatte  sono  spelonche,  e  le  cocolle 
Sacca  son  piene  di  farina  ria. 

Ma  grave  usura  tanto  non  si  tolle 
Contra  '1  piacer  di  Dio,  quanto  quel  frutto 
Che  fa  il  cuor  de'  monaci  si  folle. " 

Farad,  xxil. 

Benevento  da  Imola  commenting  on  this  passage  says  : — 

"  To  the  clearer  understanding  of  this  passage,  I  will  repeat  what  my 
venerable  preceptor,  Boccaccio  of  Certaldo,  pleasantly  narrated  to  me. 
He  said,  that  when  he  was  in  Apulia,  being  attracted  by  the  fame  of 
the  place,  he  went  to  the  great  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino  of  which 
we  are  speaking.  And,  being  eager  to  see  the  library,  which  he  had 
heard  was  very  noble ;  he,  humbly,  gentle  creature  that  he  was  J  be- 
sought a  monk  to  do  him  the  favour  to  open  it.  Pointing  to  a  lofty 
staircase,  he  answered,  stiffly,  *  Go  up  ;  it  is  open.'  Joyfully  ascending, 
he  found  the  place  of  so  great  a  treasure  without  door  or  fastening,  and, 
having  entered,  he  saw  the  grass  growing  upon  the  windows,  and  all  the 
books  and  shelves  covered  with  dust.  And,  wondering,  he  began  to 
open  and  turn  over,  now  this  book  and  now  that,  and  found  there  many 
and  various  volumes  of  ancient  and  rare  works.  From  some  of  them 
whole  sheets  had  been  torn  out,  in  others  the  margins  of  the  leaves  were 
clipped,  and  thus  they  were  greatly  defaced.  At  length,  full  of  pity  that 
the  labours  and  studies  of  so  many  illustrious  minds  should  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  such  profligate  men,  grieving  and  weeping  he  with- 
drew. And  coming  into  the  cloister,  he  asked  a  monk  whom  he  met, 
why  those  most  precious  books  were  so  vilely  mutilated.  He  replied, 
that  some  of  the  morks,  wishing  to  gain  a  few  ducats,  cut  out  a  handful 
of  leaves,  and  made  psalters  which  they  sold  to  boys,  and  likewise  of 
the  margins  they  made  breviaries  which  they  sold  to  women.  Now, 
therefore,  O  scholar,  rack  thy  brains  in  the  making  of  books  !  " 

In  1326,  John  XXII.,  declaring,  from  Avignon,  that  he 
wished  to  do  honour  to  S.  Benedict,  raised  the  abbacy  into 
a  bishopric,  and  the  monks  into  a  chapter  of  canons.  Nine 
bishops  succeeded  thus,  but  the  honour  was  never  welcomed 

VOL.  II.  15 


2^86  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

at  Monte  Cassino,  as  it  was  found  to  afford  an  excuse  foi 
interference  with  monastic  election,  and  it  came  to  an  end  in 
1370. 

In  the  15  th  century  the  power  of  Monte  Cassino  began 
steadily  to  decline  :  its  fall  being  greatly  due  to  its  being 
made  an  Abbey  in  commendam.  The  Abbot  Caraffa  played 
into  the  hands  of  his  own  family :  the  Abbot  Scarampa  (the 
first  Abbot  Commendator)  spent  the  wealth  of  the  abbey  in  a 
crusade.  Paul  II.  made  himself  abbot  of  Monte  Cassino 
in  order  to  abstract  its  revenues  :  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  after- 
wards Leo  X.,  was  made  abbot  when  he  was  only  eleven 
years  old,  and  was  besieged  at  Monte  Cassino  (which  suc- 
cessfully resisted)  by  Gonsalvo  da  Cordova. 

In  1649  the  abbey  began  to  be  entirely  rebuilt  in  the 
style  of  the  Renaissance  under  the  Abbot  Squarcialupi,  and 
was  reconsecrated  by  Benedict  XIII.  in  1729. 

The  last  flicker  of  prosperity  for  Monte  Cassino  was  in 
1798,  when  the  abbatial  palace  of  S.  Germano  was  occupied 
for  a  time  by  King  Ferdinand  and  Queen  Caroline  of 
Naples.  Soon  after,  the  French  army,  becoming  victorious, 
occupied  S.  Germano,  and  laid  tremendous  requisitions  upon 
Monte  Cassino,  upon  pain  of  its  immediate  destruction.  The 
ransom  was  paid,  but  the  fate  of  the  convent  was  only  warded 
off  for  a  time,  and  it  was  soon  after  completely  pillaged,  a 
young  monk  named  Erasmus  being  cruelly  murdered  in  at- 
tempting to  defend  the  archives.  In  1806  all  the  Houses  of 
the  Benedictine  Order  were  suppressed  in  the  kingdom  of 
Naples ;  Monte  Cassino,  La  Cava,  and  Monte  Vergine,  being 
preserved  simply  as  Libraries,  with  a  few  monks  to  guard 
them.  After  the  return  of  the  Bourbons,  Monte  Cassino  had 
a  temporary  recovery,  and  since  the  Sardinian  occupation  its 


COURT-YARD  OF  MONTE  CASSINO.  227 

services  to  literature  have  exempted  it  from  the  entire  con- 
fiscation which  has  fallen  on  all  other  religious  houses.  But 
the  poor  monks  have  a  bare  subsistence,  and  times  are 
indeed  changed  since  the  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino  was  the 
first  baron  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  administrator  of  a 
diocese  (created  1321)  composed  of  37  parishes;  while 
amongst  the  dependencies  of  the  abbey  were  4  bishoprics, 
2  principalities,  20  countships,  250  castles,  440  towns  and 
villages,  336  manors,  23  sea-ports,  33  islands,  200  mills,  300 
tracts  of  land,  and  1662  churches.  Its  revenues  at  the  end 
of  the  i6th  century,  were  valued  at  500,000  ducats. 

But  we  have  lingered  too  long  over  the  history  of  the 
abbey,  and  as  yet  have  only  visited  the  cell  of  S.  Benedict, 
which,  indeed,  unbelievers  say  only  dates  from  the  time  of  the 
restoration  under  Desiderius. 

A  beautiful  and  spacious  court-yard,  by  Bramante,  adorned 
with  statues  of  the  chief  benefactors,  and  with  a  noble  foun- 
tain in  the  midst,  occupies  the  centre  of  the  building.  Open 
arcades,  on  either  side,  display  other  courts,  now  used  as 
gardens,  where,  amid  the  flowers,  are  preserved  many 
portions  of  the  granite  pillars  from  the  church  which 
Desiderius  built  in  the  eleventh  century.  Colossal  statues  of 
Benedict  and  Schoiastica  guard  the  ascent  to  the  upper 
quadrangle,  which  is  surrounded  by  the  statues  of  the  great 
benefactors  of  the  convent,  those  on  the  right  being  royal, 
those  on  the  left  papal.  Near  the  entrance  of  the  church  are 
the  parents  of  Benedict,  of  Placidus,  and  of  Maurus.  The 
living  raven  which  hops  about  here,  and  which  is  quite  a 
feature  of  the  monastery,  commemorates  the  ravens  which 
miraculously  guided  the  patriarch  hither  from  Subiaco. 

Accurate  descriptions  still  exist  of  the  church  of  Desi- 


.228  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

derius,  which  was  approached  by  a  wide  atrium,  and  divided 
by  20  granite  columns.  Both  the  atrium  and  the  interior  of 
the  church  were  covered  with  mosaic  representations  of  New 
Testament  subjects,  by  artists  imported  from  Constantinople. 
Over  the  present  entrance  is  an  inscription  relating  the  story 
of  the  church.  The  present  gates  have  the  plates  of  the 
original  bronze  doors,  inlaid  in  silver  letters  with  a  list  of  all 
the  possessions  of  the  abbey  in  1066,  when  they  were  made 
at  Constantinople  for  Desiderius. 

The  present  Church  was  built  in  1640  in  the  form  of  a 
Latin  Cross.  It  is  of  the  most  extreme  magnificence, 
exceeds  S.  Peter's,  and  rivals  the  Certosa  of  Pavia  in  the 
richness  and  variety  of  its  marbles.  The  roof  of  the  nave  is 
painted  by  Luca  Giordano,  and  by  the  same  painter  is  a  great 
fresco  over  the  doors,  of  the  consecration  of  the  first  basilica 
by  Alexander  II. 

The  stalls  of  the  choir,  though  renaissance,  are  splendid 
specimens  of  carved  wood-work  j  in  the  centre  of  each  is  a 
Benedictine  saint.  Here  hang  four  great  pictures  by  Fran- 
cesco Solinus.  In  the  left  transept  is  the  tomb  of  Pietro 
de'  Medici,  who  was  drowned  in  the  Garigliano,  Dec.  27, 
1503,  by  the  overcrowding  and  sinking  of  a  boat,  in  which 
he  was  taking  flight  after  the  defeat  of  the  French  by  Gon- 
salvo  da  Cordova.  The  bas-reliefs  are  by  San  Gallo.  In 
the  opposite  transept  is  the  tomb  of  Guidone  Fieramosca, 
last  Prince  of  Mignano.  In  the  side  chapels  are  several 
works  of  Marco  Mazzaroppi,  the  best  being  S.  Gregory  the 
Great,  and  the  martyrdom  of  S.  Andrew.  Beneath  the 
high  altar  and  surrounded  by  a  chain  of  lamps,  repose 
Benedict  and  Scholastica,  with  these  words  only  over  their 
grave  : 


LIBRARY,  MONTE  CASSINO.  229 

♦•  Benedictum  et  Scholasticam, 

Uno  in  terris  partu  editos, 
Una  in  Deum  pietate  coelo  redditos, 

Unus  hie  excipit  tumulus 
Mortalis  depositi  pro  seteniitate  custos." 

In  the  crypt  below,  where  Tasso,  on  his  last  journey  to 
Rome,  knelt  by  the  founder's  tomb,  are  some  ruined  frescoes 
by  the  rare  master  Marco  da  Siena.  In  the  sacristy  a 
number  of  magnificent  old  copes  are  preserved.  Here  are  a 
curious  old  brazier  and  a  stone  lavatory. 

The  Refectory  contains  an  immense  picture  by  Francesco 
and  Leandro  Bassano.  In  the  upper  part,  Christ  is  repre- 
sented performing  the  miracle  of  the  loaves  and  fishes  ;  in 
the  lower,  S.  Benedict  is  distributing  the  symbolical  bread 
of  the  Benedictine  Rule.  The  painter  Leandro  has  intro- 
duced his  own  figure  to  the  left  of  the  saint.  In  the  corner 
is  John  Calvin,  livid  with  disgust. 

The  Library,  built  in  the  i6th  century,  by  the  \bbot 
Squarcialupi,  still  contains  about  20,000  volumes.  Its  origin 
mounts  up  to  the  foundation  of  the  abbey,  for  S.  Benedict 
mentions  it  in  one  of  the  rules  of  his  Order.  800  original 
diplomas  remain,  containing  the  charters  and  privileges 
accorded  to  the  abbey  by  popes,  emperors,  and  kings.  The 
collection  of  Lombard  charters  deserves  especial  notice  on 
account  of  the  miniatures  placed  at  the  head  of  each,  a  con- 
temporary portrait-gallery  rudely  executed,  but  at  least 
interesting,  as  displaying  the  costume  of  the  time.  The 
earliest  charter,  bearing  date  884,  is  of  a  Prince  of  Beneven- 
tum,  and  begins — "Ajo  Dei  providentia  Longobardorum 
gentis  princeps."  The  earliest  bull  is  that  of  Pope  Zacharias 
of  the  beginning  of  the  8th  century.     Amongst  the  MSS.  is 


230  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

a  co-eval  MS.  of  Dante.  Most  of  the  pictures  at  Monte 
Cassino  were  removed  to  form  the  gallery  at  Naples.  A 
few  sketches  by  old  masters,  which  remain,  are  collected  in 
the  cell  of  S.  Benedict. 

It  requires  more  than  a  passing  visit  to  Monte  Cassino  in 
order  really  to  appreciate  it.  The  views  are  such  as  grow 
upon  one  daily  and  are  full  of  interest.  The  highest  peak  is 
Monte  Cairo,  near  the  foot  of  which  is  the  patriarchal  castle 
of  the  family  of  S.  Thomas  Aquinas.  Through  the  valley 
winds  the  Garigliano.  In  the  plain  between  it  and  the  sea 
the  great  battle  was  gained  by  Gonsalvo  da  Cordova,  in 
which  Pietro  de'  Medici  perished,  to  whom  his  uncle  Cle- 
ment VII.  gave  a  tomb  here.  Between  the  mountains  the 
Mediterranean  may  be  descried,  glittering  in  the  bay  of  Gaieta. 

**Au  sommet  de  sa  montagae  le  moine  benedictin,  degage  des  vains 
bruits  de  la  terre,  peut,  du  fond  de  sa  cellule,  contempler  Dieu  dans  la 
plus  admirable  de  ses  oeuvres,  et  par  suite  eprouver  de  ces  ravissements 
intimes  qui  font  oublier  aux  ames  reveuses  les  douleurs  de  la  passion  et 
les  amertumes  du  sacrifice.  On  I'a  remarque  souvent,  et  c'est  le  lieu  de  le 
rappeler  ici,  la  plupart  des  fondateurs  d'ordres  religieux  ont  montre  une 
connaissance  profonde  du  coeur  humain,  en  choisissant  pour  y  batir  leur 
premiere  demeure  les  sites  a  la  fois  les  plus  beaux  et  les  plus  recueillis. 
C'etait  un  dedommagement  offert  a  la  faiblesse  et  aux  tendances 
naturelles  de  I'homme,  qui  sent  toujours  le  besoin  de  retremper  sa  foi 
aux  sources  vives  de  la  nature,  pour  remonter  ensuite  du  spectacle  de  la 
creation  k  la  sublime  idee  du  Createur." — Alphonse  Dantier. 

In  the  evening,  delightful  walks  may  be  taken  to  the 
different  ruins  and  old  chapels  in  the  neighbourhood.  In  the 
old  Collegiata  of  S.  Germano  it  will  be  interesting  to  recall 
the  picturesque  legend  of  "  Le  Suore  Morte." 

*  Two  ladies  of  an  illustrious  family  had  joined  the  sisterhood  of  S. 
Scholastica.  Though  in  other  respects  exemplary  and  faithful  to  their 
religious  profession,  they  were  much  given  to  scandal  and  vain-  talk ; 


S.   GERMANO. 


231 


which  being  told  to  S.  Benedict,  it  displeased  him  greatly  ;  and  he 
sent  to  them  a  message,  that  if  they  did  not  refrain  their  tongues  and  set 
a  better  example  to  the  community  he  would  excommunicate  them.  The 
nuns  were  at  first  alarmed  and  penitent,  and  promised  amendment  ;  but 
the  habit  was  loo  strong  for  their  good  resolves  ;  they  continued  their 


Boy  of  S.  Germane. 


vain  and  idle  talking,  and,  in  the  midst  of  their  folly,  they  died.  And 
being  of  great  and  noble  lineage,  they  were  buried  in  the  church  near 
the  altar  ;  and  afterwards,  on  a  certain  day,  as  S.  Benedict  solemnized 
mass  at  that  altar,  and  at  the  moment  when  the  officiating  deacon 
uttered  the  usual  words,  '  Let  those  who  are  excommunicated,  and  for- 


232  If  A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

bidden  to  partake,  depart  and  leave  us  ' ;  behold,  the  two  nuns  rose  up 
from  their  graves,  and  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  with  faces  drooping 
and  averted,  they  glided  out  of  the  church.  And  thus  it  happened  every 
time  that  the  mass  was  celebrated  there,  until  S.  Benedict,  taking  pity 
upon  them,  absolved  them  from  their  sins,  and  they  rested  in  peace." 
— Jameson! s  Monastic  Orders. 

Monte  Cassino  is  still  (1874)  the  residence  of  the  learned 
and  venerable  Padre  Tosti,  who  vies  with  his  brethren  in 
kindness  shown  to  strangers  and  the  hospitality  with  which 
they  are  received.  Though  "  spogliati  " — say  the  monks — 
"  Providence  still  watches  over  the  children  of  S.  Benedict, 
and  has  preserved  this,  his  most  important  convent,  from 
destruction  : "  they  are  constantly  occupied  in  education,  and 
there  is  a  great  college  in  the  convent. 

Monte  Cassino  should  be  visited  after  Subiaco.  At 
Subiaco,  S.  Benedict  is  seenas  a  J/i?«>^/  at  Monte  Cassino,  as 
a  Prince. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

AQUINO  AND  PONTECORVO. 

(This  delightful  excursion  may  easily  be  made  from  the  comfortable 
hotel  (Albergo  Pompei)  at  S.  Germano.  A  carriage  for  the  day,  with 
two  horses,  costs  lo  francs,  and  a  buono-mano  of  2  francs.) 

WE  left  S.  Germano  on  a  lovely  April  morning,  when 
the  effect  of  the  mountains  was  greatly  enhanced  by 
the  mist  which  underlaid  them,  and  wrapped  the  "  Nebulosi 
rura  Casini  "  in  a  soft  veil  of  haze.  The  road  passes  beneath 
the  amphitheatre,  and  continues  under  the  mountains,  with 
their  towns  of  Piedemonte  and  Palazzuolo.  Oaks  are  allowed 
to  grow  here  for  the  sake  of  the  acorns,  and  form  avenues- 
most  beautiful  in  a  country  where  timber  is  so  scarce.  By 
the  way-side,  shepherdesses  in  white /^/z;?/  sit  spinning  with 
distaffs,  while  they  watch  their  goats,  and  form  beautiful 
pictures,  as  the  light  falls  through  the  branches  upon  their 
gold  ornaments  and  scarlet  embroidered  aprons.  In  this 
land  of  strong  light  and  shadow,  how  wonderful  an  effect  is 
given  by  the  massy  folds  of  the  projecting  headdress  and  the 
simple  lines  of  the  costume. 

At  the  mediaeval  tower  of  S.  Gregorio,  the  road  to  Aquino 
turns  off  to  the  left  through  the  brilliant  plain  of  young  com, 


234 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


and  the  carriage  stops  near  the  desolate  Church  of  Santa 
Maria  Libera. 


\  S.  Maria  Libera,  Aquino. 

It  is  a  most  lovely  spot.  A  gigantic  flight  of  massive 
marble  steps,  worthy  of  the  Acropolis  of  Athens,  was  once 
the  approach  to  a  temple,  and  now  leads  to  a  church  which 
is  built  out  of  its  ruins,  and  encrusted  with  fragments  of  its 
carving.  The  great  door  is  surrounded  by  glorious  friezes 
of  acanthus  in  the  highest  relief,  which  it  was  intended  to 
remove  to  the  Museum  at  Naples,  but  which  have  fortunately 
been  permitted  to  remain  here.  In  front  was  a  portico  like 
that  of  Civita  Castellana :  its  pillars  remain,  and  its  restora- 
tion is  intended.  Over  the  principal  door  is  a  mosaic  of  the 
1 2th  century — "  of  the  best  style,"  says  Salazzaro,  "  and  like 
that  of  Capua."  It  represents  the  Virgin,  in  a  blue  tunic, 
with  the  Child  holding  a  scroll,  and  below,  on  either  side,  a 
sarcophagus,  with  a  female  head  projecting  from  it,  one 
inscribed  "  Ottolina,"  the  other  "  Maria."  The  intro- 
duction of  these  sarcophagi  in  the  mosaic,  is  believed  to 


REMAINS  OF  AQUINO. 


235 


render  it  certain  that  the  persons  alluded  to  were  the 
founders,  and  are  buried  in  the  church,  where  two  stone 
coffins  have  been  found  and  are  ascribed  to  them.  Ottolina 
has  been  identified  with  the  wife  of  Adinolfo,  son  of  Lan- 
dolfo  of  Aquino,  first  Count  of  Alsito,  and  sister  of  Gregorio 
and  Aimone  of  Isola.  She  was  sister-in-law  to  S.  Thomas 
Aquinas.  Nothing  certain  is  known  of  Maria,  but  she  is 
believed  to  have  been  either  the  mother  or  the  daughter  of 
Ottolina. 

The  interior  of  the  church  was  very  curious,  having  six 
pillars  on  one  side  of  the  nave  and  only  three  on  the  other. 
It  has  till  lately  been  roofless  and  used  as  a  Campo  Santo. 
Now,  Mgr.  Paolo  de  Niguesa,  the  venerable  and  much  hon- 
oured bishop  of  Aquino,  is  restoring  it  for  use,  but,  alas,  from 
a  love  of  uniformity,  is  destroying  its  interest,  by  making  one 
side  exactly  like  the  other. 

Close  to  the  church  is  a  beautiful  little  Triumphal  Arch^ 


Triumphal  Arch,  Aquino. 

with  Corinthian  columns.     A  mill-stream  has  been  directed 


23<> 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


through  it,  and  it  stands  reflected  in  the  clear  water,  which 
falls  below  it  in  a  series  of  miniature  cascades.  It  it  a  sub- 
ject unspoilt  by  Rosa  and  his  followers,  and  which  would 
entrance  an  artist. 

Descending  the  great  marble  staircase,  we  find  a  lane 
following  the  Via  Latina,  which  retains  some  of  its  ancient 
lava  pavement,  but  in  other  places  this  is  torn  up  to  make 
the  walls  at  the  sides.  Passing  a  succession  of  Roman 
fragments,  we  reach  the  ruined  Church  of  S.  Tomaso^  in 
which  are  several  beautiful  pieces  of  frieze  from  the  temples. 
A  little  beyond,  the  Via  Latina  is  crossed  by  the  massive 
Porta  S.  Lorenzo,  a  Roman  gateway  in  perfect  preservation, 


«s^^ 


^^«*^ 


by  which  we  enter  the  circuit  of  the  ancient  city,  passing 
through  the  still  existing  line  of  the  old  walls. 

Aquino  was  once  a  most  important  place.  Strabo  speaks 
of  it  in  his  time  as  "  a  great  city,  chief  amongst  the  Volscian 
cities,"  and  Cicero  mentions  it  as  "  frequens  municipium." 
Tacitus  says  that  Dolabella  was  exiled  and  put  to  death  here. 
The  Emperor  Pescennius  Niger  was  bom  here.     Now,  the 


REMAINS  OF  AQUINO.  237 

circuit  of  the  town  is  filled  with  vineyards  and  gardens, 
amid  which  gigantic  fragments  of  ruin  appear  at  inten'als. 
The  Volscian  city  was  destroyed  by  the  Lombards,  when  the 
inhabitants  took  refuge  at  Castro  Cielo,  on  the  top  of  the 
mountain,  where  only  a  church  and  castle  now  remain. 
Thence,  after  a  time,  they  descended  to  Palazzuolo,  where 
their  descendants  probably  exist  still.  The  ancient  coins  of 
Aquino  bore  a  head  of  Minerva  on  one  side  and  a  cock  on 
the  other. 

Following  further  the  Via  Latina,  we  see  a  succession  of 
buildings  in  ruins — a  theatre,  some  colossal  blocks  shown  as 
having  belonged  to  a  temple  of  Diana  and  now  called  S. 
Maria  Maddalena,  and  a  huge  mass  of  wall  believed  to  have 
been  a  temple  of  Ceres,  afterwards  converted  into  the  basilica 
of  S.  Pietro  Vetere.  All  the  ruins  are  embedded  in  vine- 
yards, and  surrounded  by  the  most  radiant  loveliness  of 
vegetation. 

Returning  through  the  Arco  S.  Lorenzo,  and  following 
the  little  stream  in  the  valley,  we  find  a  strange  old  church 
supported  upon  open  arches,  through  which  there  are  most 
picturesque  views  of  the  present  town  scrambling  along  the 
edge  of  tufa  rocks,  crested  and  overhung  by  fig-trees. 

This  is  the  city  which  rose  in  the  middle-ages  under  the 
powerful  Counts  of  Aquino,  but  it  now  only  contains  2700 
inhabitants.  It  is  however  the  oldest  bishopric  in  the 
Roman  Church,  its  bishops  sign  all  ecclesiastical  documents 
immediately  after  the  archbishops,  and  the  whole  cathedral 
chapter  of  Aquino  have  still  the  right  to  wear  mitres  and  full 
episcopal  robes. 

The  long  single  street,  for  the  width  of  the  cliff  allows  no 
more,  presents  a  charming  diorama  of  the  most  thoroughly 


238  DAYS  NEAR  ROME, 

Italian  life.  Every  now  and  then  the  walls  open  and  leave 
a  little  landing,  with  glimpses  of  purple  mountains,  of  snowy 
distance,  or  of  green  depths  of  orchard  and  vineyard,  kept 
ever  fresh  by  the  abundant  streams  of  crystal  water  which 
are  described  by  Italicus.  There  are  dark  archways,  grimly 
overhung  by  massive  vaulting,  yet  which  seem  quite  illumin- 
ated by  the  stocks  and  valerians  which  fill  their  projecting 
cornices,  and  still  more  by  the  glorious  costume  of  the 
people,  whose  blaze  of  colour  catches  and  concentrates  every 
flash  of  light  as  it  falls.  Now,  we  come  upon  the  gateway  of 
an  old  palazzo,  built  from  the  remains  of  temples,  and  with 
two  huge  Morgiana-pots  filled  with  flowering  oleanders,  the 
last  remaining  of  twelve  Roman  pots  which  were  discovered, 
the  rest  having  been  broken  up  by  the  contadini,  who  be- 
lieved them  to  be  filled  with  treasure.  Now,  a  pale  olive 
hangs  over  a  broad  balustrade.  Here,  there  is  a  ruined  castle 
used  as  a  bacon-shop,  and  beside  it  a  palace  with  Venetian 
Gothic  windows  (the  veritable  "  Casa  Reale  "  in  which  S. 
Thomas  was  born,  and  where  a  kitchen  is  shown  in  which 
he  fought  with  demons),  now  let  out  in  poor  tenements. 
There,  a  grand  old  marble  lion,  with  a  ring  through  his  nose, 
stands  in  the  piazza,  amid  a  collection  of  Roman  millstones 
and  bases  and  capitals  of  columns.  The  winding  street, 
with  its  pitilessly  rugged  pavement,  is  the  place  where  all 
the  business  of  life  is  carried  on.  The  barber  is  shaving  his 
patients  in  the  street,  the  Friggitore  is  tossing  up  2ifrittum. 
One  group  of  women  is  spinning,  another  is  making  lace. 
There  are  babies  being  rocked  in  baskets,  and  there  are 
others — the  "  creatures  " — being  carried  in  baskets  on  their 
mothers'  heads,  taking  the  place  of  the  grand  painted  vases 
with  the  twisted  handles,  so  huge  and  heavy  when  filled  with 


S.    THOMAS  AQUINAS.  239 

water,  and  which  yet  the  women  here  poise  so  lightly.  A 
boy  is  climbing  up  a  wall  to  pick  the  golden  oranges  which 
are  hanging  over  it ;  beneath,  a  flock  of  chickens  are  pecking 
at  a  sieve  filled  with  almost  more  golden  Indian  maize  ;  and 
through  all  this  collection  of  life  when  we  were  there,  the 
priest,  in  purple  cassock  and  white  pellerine,  was  moving 
from  house  to  house,  pronouncing  his  Easter  benediction 
upon  the  furniture  and  cooking  utensils,  and  followed  by  a 
man  with  a  large  basket  to  receive  the  dole  of  eggs,  saffron- 
cakes,  zxAfenocchi,  which  he  expected  in  return. 

S.  Thomas  Aquinas  was  born  in  the  old  palace  of  Aquino, 
March  7,  1224,  being  the  son  of  Count  Landolfo  and  his 
wife  Teresa  Caracciolo.  His  grandfather  married  the  sister 
of  the  Emperor  Frederick  I.,  and  he  was  therefore  great- 
nephew  of  that  prince.  It  has  been  the  custom  to  say  he 
was  bom  at  Rocca-Secca,  which  however  was  never  more 
than  a  mere  "  fortezza  "  of  the  Counts  of  Aquino,  and  never 
used  by  them  as  a  residence,  and  all  uncertainty  has  been 
cleared  by  the  late  discovery  of  a  letter  of  the  saint  in  the 
archives  at  Monte  Cassino,  saying  that  he  was  coming  to 
seek  the  blessing  of  the  Abbot  Bernard  before  setting  out 
upon  a  journey,  and  that  he  intended  to  visit  his  birthplace 
at  Aquino  on  the  way.  Here  the  youngest  sister  of  S. 
Thomas  was  killed  by  a  flash  of  lightning  while  sleeping  in 
the  room  with  him  and  her  nurse.  At  five  years  old  S. 
Thomas  was  sent  to  school  at  Monte  Cassino,  but  at  twelve 
his  masters  declared  themselves  nnable  to  teach  him  any 
more.  On  account  of  his  stolid  silence,  he  obtained  the 
nickname  of  "  the  dumb  ox,"  but  his  tutor  Albertus  Magnus, 
after  some  answers  on  difficult  subjects,  said — "  We  call  him 
the  dumb  ox,  but  he  will  give  such  a  bellow  in  learning  as 


240  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

will  astonish  the  whole  world."  At  seventeen  he  received 
the  habit  of  S.  Domenico  at  Naples.  His  mother,  the 
Countess  Teodora,  tried  to  prevent  his  taking  the  final  vows, 
and  he  fled  from  her  towards  Paris.  At  Acquapendente  he 
was  intercepted  by  his  brothers  Landolfo  and  Rinaldo,  who 
tore  off  his  habit,  and  carried  him  to  his  father's  castle  of 
Rocca-Secca.  Here  his  mother  met  him,  and  finding  her 
entreaties  vain,  shut  him  up,  and  allowed  him  to  see  no  one 
but  his  two  sisters,  whose  exhortations  she  hoped  would 
bend  him  to  her  will.  On  the  contrary,  he  converted  his 
sisters,  and,  after  two  years'  imprisonment,  one  of  them 
let  him  down  from  a  window,  and  he  was  received  by  some 
Dominicans,  and  pronounced  the  final  vows. 

Gradually  S.  Thomas  Aquinas  became  the  greatest  theo- 
logical teacher  and  writer  of  his  time.  When  he  refused  a 
bishopric,  the  Pope  made  him  always  attend  his  person,  and 
thus  his  lectures  were  chiefly  given  in  the  different  towns  of 
Papal  residence  —  Rome,  Viterbo,  Orvieto,  Fondi,  and 
Perugia.  Clement  IV.  tried  hard  to  make  him  an  arch- 
bishop, but  he  refused  all  preferment,  and  died  at  Fossanuova 
in  1274. 

S.  Thomas  composed  the  office  for  the  festival  of  Corpus 
Domini.  His  crowning  work  was  the  Summa  TTieologicBy 
which  may  be  called,  "  The  Christian  religion  thrown  into 
scientific  form,  and  the  orderly  exposition  of  what  man 
should  be." 

"The  whole  movement  of  the  Summa  Theologice  is  towards  the 
Beatific  Vision  of  God,  which  will  be  the  occupation  of  man's  eternity ; 
and  to  tend  towards  it  is  the  permanent  duty  and  the  one  supreme  in- 
terest of  man  on  earth. " — Roger  Bede  Vaughan. 

But  to  ordinary  readers  S.  Thomas  is  perhaps  less  known 


LORE  TO  AND  PONTECORVO.  241 

by  his  philosophy  than  by  his  hymns,  of  which  the  most  cele- 
brated are  "  O  Sacrum  Convivium,"  "  Pange  Lingua,"  "  Tan- 
tum  Ergo,"  "  O  Salutaris,"  and  "  Lauda  Sion."  His  character 
is  well  summed  up  in  an  inscription  beneath  an  old  portrait 
of  the  saint  in  a  church  at  Naples  : 

•*0  sapientiae  coelestis  optatissimum  auspicium  ! 
O  integerrimae  vitae  jucundissimum  exemplum  ! 
Salve  Thoma  sanctissime  custos, 
Salve  sapientissime  magister, 
Salve  benevolentissime  pater, 
Macte  gloria ;  macte  laudibus ;  macte  virtutibus. " 

*  C'est  surtout  depuis  sa  mort,  que  Dieu  a  glorifie  vSaint  Thomas,  et 

qu'il  I'a  rendu  un  docteur  universel Vous  dirai-je  que  I'oracle 

du  monde  chretien,  Rome  meme  a  vu  souvent  ses  pontifes  descendre  du 
tribunal  sacre,  et  y  faire  monter  les  ecrits  de  notre  saint  pour  prononcer 
sur  les  differends  qui  troubloient  I'Eglise  ;  que  les  conciles  eux-memes, 
ces  juges  venerables  da  la  doctrine,  ont  forme  leurs  decrets  eur  ses  de- 
cisions ;  que  les  partisans  de  I'erreur  n'ont  jamais  eu  de  plus  redoutable 
ennemi,  et  que  comme  les  Philistins,  ils  ont  desespere  de  pouvoir  extermi- 
ner  I'armee  de  Dieu  vivant,  tandis  que  cette  arche  residerait  au  milieu 
d'elle  :  Tolle  Thomam,  et  dissipabo  Ecclesiam  Dei.'''' — Massillon,  Ser- 
mons. 

Not  far  from  Aquino  is  the  mountain  castle  of  Loreto, 
which  belonged  to  the  parents  of  S.  Thomas.  It  was  while 
they  were  staying  here,  that  he,  a  boy,  stole  all  the  contents 
of  the  family  larder  to  distribute  to  the  poor.  His  father 
intercepted  him  and  sternly  commanded  him  to  give  up 
what  his  cloak  contained — when  a  shower  of  roses  is  said  to 
have  fallen  from  it  upon  the  ground. 

Three  miles  beyond  Aquino,  the  road  which  passes  under 
the  Arco  S.  Lorenzo  leads  to  PontecorvOy  which  was  once  an 
independent  state  like  Monaco,  a  sort  of  little  kingdom  of 
its  own.     In  the  middle  ages  it  belonged  alternately  to  the 


242  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

great   family  of  Tomacelli,  and   to   the  Abbey  of  Monte 
Cassino.     Napoleon  gave  it  as  a  Duchy  to  Bernadotte. 

Pontecorvo  has  a  beautiful  position  on  a  plateau  backed 
by  soft  swelling  hills.  It  is  approached  by  a  triumphal  arch 
surmounted  by  a  figure  of  Pius  IX.  in  the  act  of  benediction. 
Some  of  the  ancient  walls  remain.  The  streets  are  uninter- 
esting. At  the  end  of  the  town,  overhanging  the  bridge  over 
the  Garigliano,  is  the  Cathedral^  standing  on  the  substruc- 
tions of  an  ancient  temple  and  approached  by  a  wide  flight 
of  steps.  The  magnificence  of  the  costumes  here,  especially 
the  scarlet  draperies  which  are  let  down  behind,  make  a 
blaze  of  colour  during  the  church  services. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

THE  PONTINE  MARSHES. 

(This  curious  district  may  easily  be  visited  from  Velletri.  A  diligence 
leaves  Velletri  for  Terracina  on  the  arrival  of  the  quick  train  from  Rome 
at  1 1  A.  M.  Carriages  may  be  engaged  at  Velletii  for  the  whole  excur- 
sion, going  the  first  day  to  Terracina,  with  a  divergence  of  some  hours 
to  Ninfa  ;  the  second  day  remaining  at  Terracina  and  visiting  S.  F'elice 
and  the  Monte  Circello ;  the  third  day  diverging  to  Pipemo  and  Fossa- 
nuova  and  returning  to  Velletri  or  Rome  ;  or,  it  may  be  better  to  sleep 
the  third  day  at  Pipemo,  when  Sonnino  may  be  visited. ) 

IT  is  a  dull  descent  from  Velletri  towards  the  levels.    The 
road  runs  through  low  woods  of  oaks,  once  much  fre- 
quented by  brigands, — even  indeed  from  classical  times  : 

"  Interdum  et  ferro  subitus  grassator  agit  rem, 
Armato  quoties  tutse  custode  tenentur 
Et  Pomptina  palus  et  Gallinaria  pinus." 

Jtivenaly  Sat.  iii.  305. 

During  the  later  years  of  the  Papal  dominion,  no  danger 
was  ever  to  be  apprehended,  but  as  the  present  Government 
have  opened  the  prisons  and  set  loose  the  savage  gang  of 
Gasparoni,  long  secured  at  Civita  Castellana,  "  casualties  " 
are  now  possible,  though  they  occur  at  very  rare  inter\'als  : 
and  those  who  are  content  to  go  without  any  ostentation  and 
very  simply  dressed,  may  travel  without  any  risk. 


244  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

About  nine  miles  from  Velletri  we  reach  Cisterna,  the  Cis- 
terna  Neronis  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  Three  Taver?is 
(Tres  Tabernae)  of  the  New  Testament. 

**  And  so  we  went  towards  Rome.  And  from  thence,  when  the 
brethren  heard  of  us,  they  came  to  meet  us  as  far  as  Appii  Forum  and 
the  Three  Taverns ;  whom  when  Paul  saw,  he  thanked  God,  and  took 
courage." — Acts  xxmixi.  15. 

The  Three  Taverns,  probably  three  Osterias  for  travellers 
on  the  Via  Appia,  are  frequently  mentioned  by  Cicero  and 
other  classical  authors.  But  St.  Gregory  the  Great  in  one  of 
his  letters  (to  John,  Bishop  of  Velletri),  says  that  no  remains 
existed  in  his  time  of  Appii  Forum,  or  that  if  any  such  did 
exist,  the  Pontine  Marshes  made  them  inaccessible;  he  adds 
that  the  Three  Taverns  were  identical  with  the  place  then 
known  as  Cisterna.  The  antiquarian  Ricchi  *  proves  that 
this  must  be  the  place  where  the  Christian  martyrs  Abondio 
and  Abondantio  were  buried  by  the  matron  Teodora  in  her 
own  vineyard. 

The  town  of  Cisterna  clusters  around  the  vast,  gloomy, 
decaying  Palace  of  the  Gaetani,  built  at  intervals,  and  without 
any  regularity  of  design,  around  their  old  machicolated 
tower.  The  whole  of  this  district  still  belongs  to  the  Gaetani, 
whose  Countships,  Duchies,  and  Principalities,  with  the 
cities,  lands,  and  castles  belonging  to  them,  would  at  one 
time  have  made  a  very  considerable  kingdom.  Their  name 
is  supposed  to  have  been  assumed  when  the  absolute 
sovereignty  of  Gaieta  was  conferred  upon  them  by  the  Greek 
Emperor  Basil. 

jM«siucs  Gaieta  their  southern  Signories  included  Itri,  Teano,  Sessa, 
♦  Regia  de'  Volsd. 


SERMONETA.  245 

S.  Germano,  Sperlonga,  Telesco,  Rocca-Guglielma,  S.  Donate,  Garig- 
liano,  Avella,  Aquino,  Calvi,  Castiglione,  Castroforte,  Cerreto,  Dra- 
gone,  Fondi,  Gioja,  Cajazzo,  Arezze,  Matalone,  Pontecorvo,  the  Prin- 
cipality of  Caserta,  the  Countship  of  Mucrone,  the  Duchy  of  Trajetto, 
the  PrincipaUty  of  Altamura,  of  the  cities  of  Monte-Peluso,  Minervino, 
and  Mottola,  and  of  the  lands  of  Piedemonte,  Grottula,  Masafro,  Mon- 
terodune,  and  Maccia. 

Their  more  northern  possessions  were  Monte-Argentino,  Ansedonia, 
Porto- Ercole,  Orbetello,  Marsigliano,  Alticosta,  Cap'Albia,  Monte- 
Acuto,  Monte-Genti,  the  islands  of  Giglio  and  Giannuti,  Montalto, 
Ronciglione,  Nepi,  Trevi,  Mareno,  Zaucanto,  Anagni,  Rocca-Gorga, 
Norma,  Ninfa,  Sonnino,  Posi,  Vallecorsa,  Ceccano,  S.  Lorenzo,  Scul- 
cula,  La  Torte,  Vallepietra,  Filettrio,  Carpineto,  Montelanico,  Majena, 
Gigliano,  Campagnano,  Collemezzo,  Vaccone,  Podio,  Sommavilla,  S. 
Angelo,  Amendeclara,  Castro,  Rocca-Astura,  Castello  di  Selva  Molle, 
Castel  di  Giove,  Bassiano,  Acqua  Pudrida,  S.  Felicita,  Monte-Circello, 
Cisterna,  and  Sermoneta. 


In  the  plain  to  the  right  of  Cisterna,  in  the  direction  of 
Porto  d'  Anzio,  is  Campo  Morte^  where  the  Papal  generals 
Malatesta  and  Riario  gained  a  victory  in  1482  over  the 
troops  of  Naples  and  Ferrara  commanded  by  Alfonso  Duke 
of  Calabria. 

A  short  distance  beyond  Cisterna,  a  road  on  the  left 
turns  off  2  miles  to  the  mysterious  ruined  city  of  Ninfa  (see 
chapter  XV.),  and  proceeds  to  Sermoneta^  6  miles  further,  occu- 
l)ying  the  summit  of  a  hill  projecting  from  the  mountains,  and 
separated  from  them  on  one  side  by  a  beautifully  wooded 
ravine.  At  the  foot  of  the  hill  we  pass  on  the  left  an  old 
Basilica  with  a  fine  rose-window,  interesting  as  having  been 
built  in  fulfilment  of  the  vow  of  Agnesina  Gaetani  (a  sister 
of  Marc- Antonio  Colonna  and  wife  of  Onorato  Gaetani),  that 
if  her  husband  returned  in  safety  from  the  battle  of  Le- 
panto,  she  would  build  and  endow  a  church  in  honour  of  S. 
Francis,  on  the  spot  where  she  met  him. 


246 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


The  earliest  mention  of  Sermoneta  is  in  1222,  in  a  bull  of 
Honorius  III.  In  1297  it  was  bought  from  the  Annibal- 
deschi  by  Pietro  Gaetani,  Count  of  Caserta,  nephew  of 
Boniface  VIII.  In  1500  Alexander  VI.  besieged  and  took 
the  town,  putting  to  death  Monsignor  Giacomo  Gaetani,  and 
Bernardino  Gaetani,  who  was  only  aged  seven.  Till  this 
time  there  were  no  titles  in  Italy,  the  great  personages  were 
only  "  Seigneurs  "  of  their  own  lands,  but  with  the  Spanish 
Borgias  this  was  changed,  and  Alexander  VI.  made  his  own 
son  Duke  of  Sermoneta.  In  his  time  the  prisons  here  were 
erected,  and  were  well  filled.  When  Julius  II.  came  to  the 
throne,  he  restored  Sermoneta  with  all  their  other  confis- 
cated possessions  to  the  Gaetani,  and  also  bestowed  upon 
them  the  title  which  his  predecessor  had  attached  to  the 
property.  The  Gaetani  retained  their  complete  feudal  rights, 
even  the  power  of  life  and  death,  until  the  present  century. 


Sermoneta. 


The  castle  is  exceedingly  imposing  externally,  and  en- 
closes a  vast  courtyard.  Ricchi,  writing  in  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century,  dilates  upon  the  splendours  of  its  furniture, 


THE  PONTINE  MARSHES.  247 

but  the  Duke  of  Sermoneta  who  lived  in  the  time  of  the 
great  French  Revolution  was  so  dreadfully  afraid  of  an 
attack,  that  he  voluntarily  opened  his  gates  for  pillage,  and 
invited  all  the  townspeople  to  come  in  and  help  themselves  ; 
which  they  did,  leaving  nothing  whatever  behind  them.  Only 
a  small  part  of  the  building  is  now  habitable.  There  are 
one  or  two  fine  old  chimney-pieces,  but  the  parts  of  the 
castle  in  best  preservation  are  the  prisons,  which  were  built 
by  the  Borgias,  and  which  occupy  an  entire  wing,  one  belovv 
another,  beginning  with  well-lighted  rooms,  and  ending  in 
dismal  dungeons.  There  is  a  fine  view  from  the  top  of  the 
tower.  The  little  town  was  the  birthplace  of  the  painter 
Girolamo  Siciolante.  There  are  several  large  convents  on 
the  neighbouring  hills :  that  of  the  Bernardins  belonged  to 
the  Knights  Templars. 

We  now  enter  the  Pontine  Marshes. 

*'  Ceux  qui  n'ont  pas  vu  les  Marais  Pontins  se  representent  une  vaste 
etendue  de  marecages  steriles  et  nauseabondes,  aussi  desagreable  aux 
yeux  que  repugnante  k  I'odorat.  Rien  n'est  plus  loin  de  la  verite.  Les 
marais  Pontins  sont  un  des  plus  beaux  pays  de  I'Europe,  un  des  plus 
riches,  un  des  plus  charmants,  durant  les  trois  quarts  de  I'annee. 

"Figurez-vous  une  longue  plaine  bordee  d'un  cote  par  la  mer,  de 
I'autre  par  un  rang  des  montagnes  pittoresques.  Les  montagnes  sont 
cultivees  avec  soin  et  plantees  sur  tous  leurs  versants :  c'est  un  grand 
jardin  couvert  d'oliviers  dont  le  feuillage  bleuatre  semble  en  toute  saison 
baigne  d'une  vapeur  matinale.  Les  premiers  versants  protegent  des 
bois  de  vieux  orangers  bien  portants.  La  plaine  se  partage  en  forets,  en 
prairies,  et  en  cultures.  Les  forets,  hautes  et  vigoureuses,  attestent 
Tincroyable  fecondite  d'un  sol  vierge.  EUes  nourissent  les  plus  beaux 
arbres  de  I'Europe  et  les  lianes  les  plus  puissantes.  La  vigne  sauvage 
et  I'eglantier  grimpant  colorent  et  parfument  le  feuillage  toujours  vert  de 
lieges. 

••  Les  prairies  sont  peuplees  de  troupeaux  innombrables :  on  n'en 
trouverait  d'aussi  beaux  que  dans  I'Amerique  ou  dans  1' Ukraine.  Des 
bandes  de  chevaux  demi-sauvages  galopent  en  liberte  dans  des  enclos 


248  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

iinmenses ;  les  vaches  et  les  buffles  ruminent  en  paix  I'herbe  haute  et 
toufifue.  Les  gardiens  de  ce  betail,  cloues  sur  la  selle  de  leurs  chevaux, 
le  manteau  en  croupe,  le  fusil  en  bandouliere,  la  lance  au  poing,  vetus 
de  velours  solide  et  guetres  jusqu'au  genou  d'un  cuir  epais  et  brillant, 
galopent  autour  de  leurs  eleves.  Les  jeunes  poulains,  haut  perches  sur 
leurs  pattes  greles,  decoupent  a  1' horizon  leurs  silhouettes  fantastiques. 

"Les  cultures  sont  rares,  mais  gigantesques.  Au  printemps  on  voit 
jusqu'a  cent  paires  de  boeufs  occupes  a  labourer  le  meme  champ.  A  la 
fin  de  juin,  il  n'est  pas  rare  de  rencontrer  une  piece  de  ble  qui  dore  une 
lieue  de  terrain.  Les  bles  sont  beaux,  les  mais  sont  si  grands  qu'un 
homme  k  cheval  y  est  aussi  invisible  qu'une  perdrix  dans  nos  sillons. 
Les  foins,  partout  ou  I'eau  ne  fait  pas  foissonner  le  jonc  et  le  carex, 
sont  bien  longs,  bien  sains  et  bien  parfumes.  La  culture  maraichere 
trouve  meme  une  place  dans  cette  fecondite  de  toutes  choses.  C'est 
dans  les  Marais  Pontins  qu'on  cultive,  par  pieces  de  plusieurs  hectares, 
ces  artichauts  demi-sauvages  dont  le  peuple  de  Rome  se  nourrit  en  ete. 

"Cependent  tout  n'est  pas  fait  pour  les  Marais  Pontins,  puisqu'ils  ne 
sont  point  habitables.  La  population  qui  les  cultive  descend  des  mon- 
tagnes,  laboure,  fauche  ou  moissonne  et  s'enfuit  aussitot,  sous  peine  de 
rnort. 

'*  C'est  d'abord  que  les  eaux  ne  s'ecoulent  pas  assez  vite.  II  fau- 
drait  quelques  canaux  de  plus. 

"  C'est  aussi  que  les  detritus  de  matieres  vegetales  qui  composent  ce 
sol  fecond  subissent,  dans  les  grandes  chaleurs,  une  fermentation  ter- 
rible. II  s'en  degage  des  poisons  subtils,  insaisissables  a  I'odorat,  mais 
funestes  a  la  sante.  La  decomposition  des  produits  animaux  est  fetide, 
mais  inoffensive  et  presque  salubre  ;  tandis  que  ces  prairies  embaumees 
engendrent  la  peste.  Quand  le  soleil  de  juillet  a  mis  en  liberty  les  gaz 
deleteres  qui  couraient  sous  I'herbe  de  ces  campagnes,  le  vent  les  em- 
porte  ou  bon  lui  semble,  et  I'on  voit  a  dix  lieues  de  distance,  dans  la 
montagne,  en  pays  naturellement  sain,  les  hommes  mourir  empoisonnes. " 
— About,  Rome  Contemporaire,  p.  307. 

There  is  an  Osteria  at  Appii  Forum,  of  sacred  memories. 
It  is  also  the  place  where  Horace  took  the  canal-boat : — 

**  Inde  Forum  Appi, 
DifFertum  nautis,  cauponibus  atque  malignis." 

Sat.  I.  v.  3. 

The  next  Osteria,  Mesa,  is  supposed  to  mark  the  station 


THE  PONTINE  MARSHES.  24^ 

Ad  Medias  on  the  Via  Appia.  Near  it  are  a  tomb  and  some 
ancient  mile-stones.  Beyond  the  next  post-house,  of  Ponte 
Maggiore,  we  cross  a  river  formed  by  the  union  of  the  Ufente 
and  Amasena. 

"Many  people  imagine  that  the  Pontine  Marshes  are  only  marshy 
ground,  a  dreary  extent  of  stagnant,  slimy  water,  a  melancholy  road  to 
travel  over  :  on  the  contrary,  the  marshes  have  more  resemblance  to  the 
rich  plains  of  Lombardy ;  yes,  they  are  like  them,  rich  to  abundance  ; 
grass  and  herbage  grow  here  with  a  succulence  and  luxuriance  which  the 
north  of  Italy  cannot  exhibit. 

"Neither  can  any  road  be  more  excellent  than  that  which  leads 
through  the  marshes,  upon  which,  as  on  a  bowling-green,  the  carriages 
roll  along  between  unending  alleys  of  trees,  whose  thick  branches 
afford  a  shade  from  the  scorching  beams  of  the  sun.  On  each  side  the 
immense  plain  stretches  itself  out  with  its  tall  grass,  and  its  fresh,  green 
marsh-plants.  Canals  cross  one  another,  and  drain  off  the  water  which 
stands  in  ponds  and  lakes  covered  with  reeds  and  broad-leaved  water- 
lilies. 

"On  the  left  hand,  in  coming  from  Rome,  the  lofty  hills  of  Abruzzi 
extend  themselves,  with  here  and  there  small  towns,  which,  like  moun- 
tain castles,  shine  with  their  white  walls  from  the  grey  rocks.  On  the 
right  the  green  plain  stretches  down  to  the  sea  where  Cape  Circello  lifts 
itself,  now  a  promontory,  but  formerly  Circe's  Island,  where  tradition 
lands  Ulysses. 

"As  I  went  along,  the  mists,  which  began  to  dissipate,  floated  over 
the  green  extent,  where  the  canals  shone  like  linen  on  a  bleaching- 
ground.  The  sun  glowed  with  the  warmth  of  summer,  although  it  was 
but  the  middle  of  March.  Herds  of  buffaloes  went  through  the  tall 
grass.  A  troop  of  horses  gallopped  wildly  about,  and  struck  out  with 
their  hind  feet,  so  that  the  water  was  dashed  around  to  a  great  height ; 
their  bold  attitudes,  their  unconstrained  leaping  and  gambolling,  might 
have  been  a  study  for  an  animal  painter.  To  the  left  I  saw  a  dark  mon- 
strous column  of  smoke,  which  ascended  from  the  great  fire  which  the 
shepherds  had  kindled  to  purify  the  air  around  their  huts.  I  met  a 
peasant,  whose  pale,  yellow,  sickly  exterior  contradicted  the  vigorous 
fertility  which  the  marshes  presented.  Like  a  dead  man  arisen  from  the 
grave,  he  rode  upon  his  black  horse,  and  held  a  sort  of  lance  in  his  hand 
with  which  he  drove  together  the  buffaloes  which  went  into  the  swampy 
mire,  where  some  of  them  laid  themselves  down,  and  stretched  forth 
only  their  dark  ugly  heads  with  their  malicious  eyes. 


250  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"The  solitary  post-houses,  of  three  or  four  stories  high,  which  were 
erected  close  by  the  road-side,  showed  also,  at  the  first  glance,  the 
poisonous  effluvia  which  steamed  up  from  the  marshes.  The  lime- 
washed  walls  were  entirely  covered  with  an  unctuous  grey -green  mould. 
Buildings,  like  human  beings,  bore  here  the  stamp  of  corruption,  which 
showed  itself  in  strange  contrast  with  the  rich  luxuriance  around,  with 
the  fresh  verdure,  and  the  warm  sunshine." — Hans  Christian  Andersen y 
The  Improvisatore. 

Three  miles  before  reaching  Terracina,  we  pass  the  site  of 
that  fountain  of  Feronia,  which  Horace  describes  as  the 
place  where  travellers  quitted  the  canal  through  the  marshes, 
and  began  the  ascent  to  Anxur. 

"  Ora  manusque  tua  lavimus,  Feronia,  lympha, 
Millia  tum  pransi  tria  repimus,  atque  subimus 
Impositum  saxis  late  candentibus  Anxur." 

Sat.  i.  5.  23. 

The  sacred  grove  of  Feronia  (a  Sabine  goddess)  is  men- 
tioned by  Virgil : — 

**  Viridi  gaudens  Feronia  luco." 

Mn.  vii.  8cx). 

'    The  situation  of  Terracina  is  most  picturesque  and  beau- 
tiful. 

"  Close  before  me  stood  Terracina  in  the  fertile,  Hesperian  landscape. 
Three  lofty  palm-trees,  with  their  fruit,  grew  not  far  from  the  road.  The 
vast  orchards,  which  stretched  up  the  mountain-sides,  seemed  like  a 
great  green  carpet  with  millions  of  golden  points.  Lemons  and  oranges 
bowed  the  branches  down  to  the  ground.  Before  a  peasant's  hut  lay  a 
quantity  of  lemons,  piled  together  into  a  heap,  as  if  they  had  been 
chestnuts  which  had  been  shaken  down.  Rosemary  and  wild  dark-red 
gillyflowers  grew  abundantly  in  the  crevices  of  the  rock,  high  up  among 
the  peaks  of  the  cliffs,  where  stood  the  magnificent  remains  of  the 
castle  of  the  Ostrogothic  king  Theodoric,  and  which  overlook  the  city 
and  the  whole  surrounding  country.  \ 

'*  My  eyes  were  dazzled  with  the  beautiful  picture,  and,  quietly  dream- 
ing,  I  entered  Terracina.     Before  me  lay  the  sea, — the  wonderfully 


7 ERR  AC  IN  A.  25 1 

beautiful  Mediterranean.  It  was  heaven  itself  in  the  purest  ultra- 
marine, which,  like  an  immense  plain,  was  spread  out  before  me.  Far 
out  at  sea  I  saw  islands,  like  floating  clouds  of  the  most  beautiful  lilac 
colour,  and  perceived  Vesuvius  where  the  dark  column  of  smoke  became 
blue  in  the  far  horizon.  The  surface  of  the  sea  seemed  perfectly  still, 
yet  the  lofty  billows,  as  blue  and  clear  as  the  ether  itself,  broke  against 
the  shore  on  which  I  stood,  and  sounded  like  thunder  among  the  moun- 
tains."— Hans  Christian  Andersen, 

The  Volscian  name  of  Terracina  was  Anxur^  but  it  was 
always  known  as  Terracina  to  the  Latins  and  Romans.  The 
ancient  name  is  used  by  the  Latin  poets,  because  "  Terra- 
cina "  could  not  be  introduced  in  verse,  but  Livy  and  Cicero 
speak  of  Terracina. 

The  town  is  first  mentioned  in  history  b.  c.  509.  It  was 
first  taken  from  the  Volscians,  b.  c.  406,  but  was  temporarily 
reconquered  by  them.  In  b.  c.  329,  it  was  secured  by  a 
Roman  colony.  Horace  says  that  the  ancient  Anxur  stood 
upon  the  rock  at  the  foot  of  which  the  present  town  is  situated. 
Ovid  calls  it  Trachas  : — 

"  Trachasque  obsessa  palude." 

Metam.  xv.  717. 

but  the  Greek  derivation  of  Strabo  from  Tpaxtv^  (from  its 
rugged  situation),  is  a  mere  etymological  fancy. 

It  was  colonized  by  Rome,  to  which  it  became  of  import- 
ance as  a  naval  port.  The  Latin  poets  constantly  extol  its 
beauty  and  position. 

"  Jamque  et  praecipites  superaverat  Anxuiis  arces." 

Lucan.  iii.  84. 
•'.  .  scopulosi  verticis  Anxur." 

Sil.  Ital.  viii.  392. 

**.  .  arcesque  superbae 
Anxuris. " 

Stat.  Silv.  1.  3. 


2S2  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

**  Seu  placet  ^neae  nutrix,  seu  filia  Solis, 
Sive  salutiferis  candidus  Anxur  aquis." 

Mart.  V.  Ep,  I. 
"  O  nemus,  o  fontes,  solidumque  madentis  arenap 
Littus,  et  sequoreis  splendidus  Anxur  aquis." 

Id.  X.  Ep.  51. 

*' Scarcely  had  we  congratulated  ourselves  at  the  sight  of  the  rock- 
built  Terracina,  than  we  came  in  view  of  the  sea  beyond  it.  Then,  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  mountain  city,  a  new  vegetation  was  presented 
to  us.  The  Indian  figs  were  pushing  their  large  fleshy  leaves  amidst  the 
grey -green  of  dwarf  myrtles,  the  yellow-green  of  the  pomegranates,  and 
the  silvery -green  of  the  olives.  Many  new  flowers  and  shrubs  grew  by 
the  way-side.  In  the  meadows  the  narcissus  and  the  adonis  were  in 
flower.  For  a  long  time  the  sea  was  on  our  right,  while  close  to  us  on 
the  left  ran  an  unbroken  range  of  limestone  rocks." — Goethe. 

The  whole  circuit  of  the  ancient  port  can  still  be  traced, 
and  also  that  of  the  town  walls  of  ''  opus  incertum  "  (i.  e. 
recent  polygonal). 

The  Cathedral  of  S.  Pietro  stands  on  the  site  of  an  ancient 
temple,  supposed  to  be  that  of  Jupiter  Anxur,  and  many 
ancient  fluted  columns,  and  other  fragments,  are  enclosed 
within  its  buildings.  In  the  vestibule  are  ten  of  these 
ancient  columns,  resting  upon  lions.  A  Roman  sarcophagus 
is  shown  as  the  bath  of  boiling  oil  in  which  some  Christian 
martyrs  suffered.  The  pulpit  is  inlaid  with  mosaics  and 
supported  by  pillars  resting  on  lions.  The  first  bishop  is 
said  to  have  been  S.  Epaphroditus,  a  disciple  of  S.  Peter, 
A.  D.  46.  Two  other  churches  are  interesting.  We  know 
from  a  letter  of  Gregory  the  Great  to  Agnellus,  Bishop  of 
Terracina,  that  paganism  lingered  very  long  in  this  country. 

"  Now  as  to  those  who  worship  idols  and  trees :  we  have  heard  that  cer- 
tain persons  there  (it  is  a  shame  even  to  speak  of  it)  pay  worship  to  trees, 
and  perform  many  other  rites  blasphemous  to  the  Christian  faith,  and 
we  wonder  why  you,  my  brother,  have  delayed  to  visit  them  with  condign 


MONTE  CIR CELLO.  253 

punishment.  Wherefore  by  this  letter  I  exhort  you  to  make  dlHgent 
search  concerning  them,  and  when  you  know  the  truth  to  visit  them 
with  such  a  vengeance  that  their  punishment  may  appease  the  divine 
wrath,  and  be  an  example  to  others.  We  have  written  also  to  Maurus, 
our  lieutenant,  to  bid  him  give  your  Reverence  every  assistance  in  the 
matter,  if  so  be  that  you  can  find  no  sufficient  excuse  for  clemency." — 
G7-eg.  Mag.  Epp.  viii.  20. 

The  rocks  overhang  Terracina  most  picturesquely.  On 
the  summit  of  the  cliff  is  an  immense  pile  of  ruins  of  the 
Palace  of  Theodoric.  The  path  is  difficult  to  find,  and  the 
ascent  scarcely  repays  the  fatigue,  though  there  is  a  fine 
view. 

The  Emperor  Galba  was  born  in  a  villa  near  Terracina.* 
The  narrow  pass  beyond  the  town,  between  the  cliffs  and  the 
sea,  is  Lautulce,  occupied  by  the  Roman  troops  who  mutinied 
after  the  ist  Samnite  war  and  intended  marching  to  Rome, 
when  their  insurrection  was  quelled  by  Valerius  Corvus.t 
The  defile  was  secured  by  Fabius  Maximus  in  the  second 
Punic  war  to  prevent  Hannibal  from  advancing  by  the  Ap- 
pian  Way.  J 

A  little  beyond  Terracina,  the  high-road  to  Naples  passes 
through  the  arched  gateway  called  Fortella^  which  was  once 
the  frontier  of  the  kingdom. 

An  excursion  should  certainly  be  made  from  Terracina  to 
the  Circean  Mount  (Monte  Circello),  which,  in  distant  view, 
is  so  like  Capri,  and  which  is  always  so  beautiful  a  feature, 
looming  above  the  long  flat  lines  of  the  marshes. 

*'  Vedi  quel  monte,  ove  si  digiuna 
Circe  piu  volte  fece  i  suoi  incantesmi 
Al  lume  del  sole,  e  della  luna." 

Uberto. 

A  road  of  ten  miles  leads  to  S.  Felice^  a  town  on  the 

•  Suetonius,  Galb.  iv.  f  Livy,  vii.  39.  J  Livy,  xxii.  15^ 


254  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

southern  slope  of  the  mountain,  and  the  rest  of  the  ascent 
must  be  accompUshed  on  foot. 

Up  to  II  i8  the  Roman  city  of  Rocca  Circea  existed,  and 
was  then  considered  to  be  the  strongest  fortress  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Church.  It  belonged  to  the  Frangipani  from 
1 185  to  1203,  but  soon  after  that  time  must  have  perished, 
when  S.  Felice  arose  in  its  place.  This  was  sold  to  Pietro 
Gaetani,  nephew  of  Boniface  VIII.,  by  the  Annibaldeschi  in 
1 30 1,  was  confiscated  by  Alexander  VI.  in  1500  with  the 
other  Gaetani  property,  and  was  restored  to  that  family  in 
1506  by  Julius  II.  In  1713  it  was  finally  sold  to  Prince 
Ruspoh  by  Duke  Michael  Angelo  Gaetani. 

Behind  the  town  one  must  ascend  the  hill  to  visit  the  huge 
remains,  which  are  supposed  to  belong  to  the  city  of  Circe 
the  Enchantress.  Few  places  in  Italy  are  more  romantic, 
few  situations  more  striking ;  none  have  been  more  frequently 
celebrated  by  the  Latin  poets.  Towards  the  sea  the  pro- 
montory is  a  precipice,  and  on  the  other  sides  it  is  cut  off 
from  all  else  by  the  Pontine  Marshes.  Several  ancient 
writers  suppose  that  it  was  originally  an  island,  and  Homer 
thus  represents  it,  if  this  place  was  in  his  mind  when  he 
told  the  adventures  of  Ulysses.  Many  authors  mention 
that  the  tomb  of  Elpenor,  a  companion  of  Ulysses,  was 
shown  on  the  Circean  Mount,  and  Strabo  tells  of  the  cup  of 
Ulysses  (from  which,  when  his  companions  drank,  they  were 
changed  into  beasts),  being  preserved  here  as  a  relic,  and  this 
Dionysius  says  continued  to  be  shown  even  in  the  age  of 
Augustus. 

At  the  summit  of  the  mountain  are  fragments  supposed  to 
belong  to  the  Temple  of  the  Sun.  Here  was  the  abode  of 
Circe,  described  by  Virgil : — 


MONTE  CIRCELLO.  %\% 

"  Proxima  Circeae  raduntur  litora  terrae  : 
Dives  inaccessos  ubi  Solis  filia  lucos 
Assiduo  resonat  cantu,  tectisque  superbis 
Urit  odoratam  nocturna  in  lumina  cedrum, 
Arguto  tenues  percurrens  pectine  telas. 
Hinc  exaudiri  gemitus,  iraeque  leonum 
Viiicla  recusantum,  et  sera  sub  nocte  rudentuin  : 
Saetigerique  sues,  atque  in  presepibus  ursi 
Saevire,  ac  formae  magnorum  ululare  luporum. 

^n.  vii.  lO. 

The  priestesses  of  Circe  are  said  to  have  kept  a  number 
of  dried  herbs  gathered  on  the  mountain  in  the  portico  of 
the  temple,  for  the  cure  of  the  bites  of  venomous  serpents.* 

**  Funestarumque  potestas 
Herbarum,  quidquid  letali  germine  pollens 
Caucasus,  aut  Scythiae  vernant  in  carmina  rupes, 
Quas  legit  Medea  ferox,  et  callida  Circe." 

ClaudiaUy  In  Rufin.  i.  150. 

Aristotle  (De  Mirab.)  seems  to  have  heard  of  the  Circean 
Mount  as  producing  some  deadly  poison,  but  Strabo  says 
that  the  descriptions  of  the  poisonous  herbs  here  are  probably 
only  invented  to  confirm  the  claim  of  the  promontory  to  be 
the  abode  of  the  witch  Circe. 

The  situation  of  the  town  of  Circeii  is  uncertain,  but  it 
probably  stood  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  S.  Felice.  It  is 
first  mentioned  in  the  time  of  Tarquinius  Superbus,  who 
colonized  it  at  the  same  time  as  Signia.t  It  was  taken  by 
Coriolanus  and  restored  to  the  Volsci.  In  b.  c.  340  it  was 
one  of  the  cities  of  the  Latin  league.  After,  it  fell  again  into 
the  hands  of  the  Romans  ;  it  was  never  very  faithful  to  them. 
At  the  time  of  the  second  Punic  War  it  had  declined,  and 
was  one  of  the  twelve  cities  which  declared  themselves 

•  See  Ricchi,  Regia  de'  Volsci.  t  Livy,  i.  56. 


256  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

unable  to  contribute  to  the  supplies  of  the  army.  It  is  called 
a  small  town  (TroXix^nov)  by  Strabo.  Many  wealthy  Romans 
however  resorted  to  it  under  the  empire,  and  both  Tiberius 
and  Domitian  had  villas  here.  Its  oysters  were  celebrated.* 

"Ostrea  Circaeis,  Miseno  oriuntur  echini." 

Horace y  Sat.  ii.  iv.  33. 

"  Circseis  nata  forent,  an 
Lucrinum  ad  saxum,  Rutupinove  edita  fundo 
Ostrea,  callebat  primo  deprendere  morsu." 

Jtivenaly  Sat.  iv.  140. 

The  triumvir  Lepidus  was  banished  hither  by  Augustus, 
after  his  deposition.! 

The  port  of  Circeii  was  probably  on  the  west  of  the  pro- 
montory, at  the  spot  called  Porto  di  Paolo. 

Immediately  under  the  promontory  of  this  side  is  the 
Lago  di  Paolo.  The  tower  called  Torre  di  Paolo  was  built  by 
the  Gaetani  under  Pius  IV. 

On  the  other  side,  Monte  Circello  is  the  point  of  a  bay 
which  is  closed  at  the  other  end  by  Gaieta.  It  is  the 
"  Sinus  Amyclanus  "  of  Pliny,  and  was  the  southern  boundary 
of  Latium. 

The  number  of  strange  sea-birds  on  the  Monte  Circello 
will  form  an  attraction  to  the  ornithologist.  Tliere  is  a 
curious  stalactite  cavern,  called  Grotta  della  Maga. 

In  returning  to  Velletri,  a  divergence  should  be  made  from 
Foro  Appio  (a  public  conveyance  is  said  still  to  run  in  con- 
nection with  the  diligence)  to  Sezza,  the  Sttia  of  the  Vol- 
scians,  which  is  beautifully  situated  on  a  hill  above  the 
marshes.      Some  ruins  here  are  shown  as  those  of  a  temple 

•  Pliny,  xxii.  6.  t  Suetonius,  Aug.  16. 


FOSSANUOVA.  257 

of  Saturn.    The  women  of  Sezza  have  a  very  pretty  and 
peculiar  costume. 

From  the  base  of  the  hill  of  Sezza,  a  road  to  the  right 
leads  (6  miles)  to  Fipemo,  the  ancient  Frivernum,  a  most  pic- 
turesque place,  with  many"  fragments  of  Gothic  domestic 
architecture,  and  a  charming  piazza  adorned  with  old 
orange-trees.  It  has  been  celebrated  in  all  ages  for  its 
brigands.  In  the  early  history  of  Rome,  it  made  common 
cause  with  Fondi,  was  conquered,  and  its  chief,  Vitruvius 
Vacca,  was  beaten  to  death  at  Rome.  His  house  on  the 
Palatine  was  razed,  and  the  neighbourhood  of  its  site  received 
the  name  of  Campo-Vaccino. 

Three  miles  north  is  the  famous  monastery  of  Fossanuova, 
which  was  founded  by  Benedictines,  and  existed  in  the 
beginnmg  of  the  ninth  century.  In  1135  it  passed  to  the 
Cistercians,  who  were  succeeded  by  Carthusians,  after  the 
suppression  under  the  French.  In  the  twelfth  century  the 
monastery  was  restored  by  Frederick  Barbarossa,  and  in  the 
thirteenth  century  it  was  rebuilt  under  Frederick  II.  The 
fagade  of  Italian-Gothic  is  extremely  handsome,  the  interior 
is  exceedingly  simple  and  pure,  like  that  of  Casamari. 

Hither  S.  Thomas  Aquinas  came  on  his  way  from  Naples 
to  the  General  Council  at  Lyons  in  1224,  and  here  he  died. 
He  lay  sick  for  some  weeks,  and  during  this  last  illness 
dictated  a  commentary  on  the  Song  of  Solomon.  When  the 
last  Sacrament  was  brought  to  him  he  desired  to  be  taken 
from  his  bed  and  laid  upon  ashes  strewn  upon  the  floor. 
His  body  was  taken  hence,  first  to  Fondi,  then  to  Toulouse, 
except  the  head,  which  is  preserved  in  the  cathedral  of 
Piperno.  On  that  which  was  intended  for  his  tomb  is 
inscribed  : 

VOL.    II.  11 


258  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  Occidit  hie  Thomas,  lux  et  fax  amplior  Orbi, 
Et  candelabrum  sic  Nova  Fossa  foret, 
Editus  ardenti  locus  est,  non  fossa  lucerna, 
Hanc  igitur  Fossam,  quis  neget  esse  Novam?" 

* '  Entering  the  monastery  of  Fossanuova,  he  went  first  to  pray  before 
the  Blessed  Sacrament,  according  to  his  custom.  Passing  thence  into 
the  cloister,  which  he  never  lived  to  go  out  of,  he  repeated  these  words  : 
This  is  my  rest  for  ages  without  end.  He  was  lodged  in  the  abbot's 
apartment,  where  he  lay  ill  for  nearly  a  month, 

"  While  lying  ill,  he  had  continually  in  his  mouth  these  words  of  S. 
Austin,  '  Then  shall  I  truly  live,  when  I  shall  be  quite  filled  with  you 
alone,  and  your  love  ;  now  I  am  a  burden  to  myself,  because  I  am  not 
entirely  full  of  you.'  In  such  pious  transports  of  heavenly  love  he  never 
ceased  sighing  after  the  glorious  day  of  eternity.  In  his  last  moments 
one  of  the  monks  asked  him  by  what  means  we  might  live  always  faith- 
ful in  God's  grace.  He  answered,  '  Be  assured  that  he  who  shall 
always  walk  faithfully  in  his  presence,  always  ready  to  give  him  an 
account  of  all  his  actions,  shall  never  be  separated  from  him  by  consenting 
to  sin.'  These  were  his  last  words  to  man,  after  which  he  only  spoke 
to  God  in  prayer," — Alban  Butler. 

"  In  his  last  illness,  the  monks,  notwithstanding  his  feeble  condition, 
could  not  refrain  from  asking  him  to  expound  to  them  the  Canticle  of  Can- 
ticles, which  has  wholly  to  do  with  the  mystic  marriage  of  the  soul  with 
Christ.  The  Angelical  looked  at  them  with  unutterable  gentleness  and 
said,  '  Get  me  Bernard's  spirit,  and  I  will  do  your  bidding.'  Finally, 
he  gave  way  to  them,  and  surrounding  the  bed  on  which  he  lay,  they 
heard  from  the  lips  of  the  dying  Theologian  how  there  is  no  strength,  or 
peace,  or  light  for  man,  in  earth  or  heaven,  without  the  charity  of  Christ 
and  the  merits  of  his  Cross. 

"Growing  weaker,  Thomas  became  conscious  that  his  hour  was 
drawing  very  nigh.  He  sent  for  Reginald,  his  socius,  and  with  deep 
contrition,  made  a  review  of  his  entire  life,  which,  in  reality,  was  simply 
a  manifestation  of  the  abiding  and  angelic  purity  of  his  heart  and  spirit. 
Having  done  this,  he  begged  the  brethren  to  bring  him  the  body  of  our 
Lord,  and  the  Abbot,  accompanied  by  his  community,  proceeded  to  the 
chamber  of  the  dying  man,  bearing  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  Immediately 
the  great  Angelical  perceived  his  Master's  presence,  with  the  help  of  the 
brethren  he  rose  from  his  pallet,  and,  kneeling  upon  the  floor,  adored 
his  King  and  Saviour.  When  the  Abbot  was  on  the  point  of  administer- 
ing to  him  he  exclaimed  :  '  I  receive  Thee,  the  price  of  my  soul's  re- 
demption, for  the  love  of  whom  I  have  studied,  I  have  watched,  and  I 


5.    THOMAS  AQUINAS.  259 

have  laboured  !  Thee  have  I  preached,  Thee  have  I  taught,  against 
Thee  have  1  never  breathed  a  word,  neither  am  I  wedded  to  my  own 
opinion.  If  I  have  held  aught  which  is  untrue  respecting  this  Blessed 
Sacrament,  I  subject  it  to  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  in 
whose  obedience  I  now  pass- out  of  life.'  Then  as  the  Abbot  lifted  up 
the  spotless  Element  he  uttered  his  favourite  ^aculation  :  *  Thou,  O 
Christ,  art  the  King  of  glory  j  Thou  art  the  Everlasting  Son  of  the 
Father  ! ' 

**  He  was  taken  from  exile  on  the  early  morning  of  March  7,  1274,  in 
the  prime  of  manly  life,  being  scarcely  eight  and  forty  years  of  age. 

•'  It  is  but  natural,  it  is  but  beautiful,  that  he,  who  in  early  boyhood 
had  been  stamped  with  the  signet  of  S.  Benedict,  should  return  to  S. 
Benedict  to  die.  He  had  gone  forth  to  his  work  and  to  his  labour  in 
the  morning,  and  he  returned  home  to  his  brethren  in  the  evening-tide. " 
—  Vaughan's  Life  of  S.  Thomas  Aquinas. 

*'  L'oeuvre  etait  achevee.  Prince,  moine,  disciple,  Saint  Thomas 
d'Aquin  pouvait  monter  sur  le  tr6ne  dela  science  divine  ;  il  y  monta  en 
effet,  et  depuis  six  siecles  qu'il  y  est  assis,  la  Providence  ne  lui  a  point 
envoye  de  successeur  ni  de  rival.  II  est  demeure  prince  comme  il  etait 
ne,  solitaire  comme  il  s'etait  fait,  et  la  qualite  seule  de  disciple  a  disparu 
en  lui,  parcequ'il  est  devenu  le  maitre  de  tous." — Lacordaire^  Confer- 
ences de  Toulouse. 

*'  If  we  now  hear  the  name  of  scholasticism  we  think  not  unjustly  of 
a  labyrinth  which  a  prosaic,  petty,  and  musty  understanding,  dissecting 
things  and  classifying  them  again,  has  built  up  in  centuries  of  barren 
leisure.  Who  would  now  dive  into  the  '  summa  theologiae '  of  Thomas 
Aquinas  ?  who  would  venture  into  this  dark  forest  of  spirits,  in  the  midst 
of  which  lies  the  Aristotelian-Christian  Minotaur  of  thought?  This 
colossal  edifice  of  philosophy  we  look  upon  now  as  an  astonishing 
antiquity,  and  its  hair-splitting  distinctions,  its  moral  and  speculative  in- 
vestigations, its  problems  which  lie  far  away  from  every  object  of  life, 
no  longer  occupy  a  race  which  has  grown  more  practical  or  material,  or 
freer  and  more  simple  in  thought.  But  let  us  not  forget  that  even  those 
systems  were  foundations  for  the  science  of  thought,  besides  which  we 
must  confess  that  man  in  the  nineteenth  century  is  just  as  helpless,  with 
re^'ard  to  the  highest  pioblems  which  the  mind  can  propose,  as  a 
scholastic  of  the  middle  ages,  or  as  the  first  man  in  paradise." — Gre- 
gorovius. 

The  valley  of  Fossanuova  is  watered  by  the  Amasena,  the 
Amasenus  of  Virgil : — 


26o  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

**  Ecce,  fugse  medio,  summis  Amasenus  abundans 
a  Spumabat  ripis  ;  tantus  se  nubibus  imber 

Ruperat ;  ille  innare  parans  infantis  amore 
Tardatur,  caroque  onere  timet." 

^n.  xi.  547. 

It  is  only  four  or  five  miles  from  hence  to  Sonnino,  in  a 
most  picturesque  situation. 

' '  Sonnino  se  voit  de  loin  sur  la  pointe  d'un  rocher.  Les  batiments  sont 
uniformement  gris,  couleur  de  ruines.  On  distingue  la  base  de  quelques 
tours  a  moitii  demolies ;  c'est  tout  ce  qui  reste  de  I'enceinte  fortifiee. 
Deux  ou  trois  constructions  neuves,  d'un  blanc  cm,  font  tache  dans  le 
paysage  et  troublent  I'harmonie  triste  du  lieu.  La  route  elle-meme  me 
parut  sinistre,  quoiqu'elle  fut  toute  en  fleurs.  Les  oliviers,  les  vignes, 
les  clematites,  les  ronces,  les  genets,  fleurissaient  a  qui  mieux  mieux  ;  les 
boutons  du  myrte  allaient  s'ouvrir,  et  pourtant  ce  luxe  vigoureux  d'un 
printemps  d'ltalie  ne  vous  parlait  ni  d' amour  ni  de  plaisir.  Nous 
sondions  la  profondeur  des  ravins  qui  bordaient  I'escarpement  des 
rochers  arides,  nous  plongions  dans  I'epaisseur  impenetrable  des  halliers. 
Quelques  champs  larges  comme  la  main,  appuyes  sur  les  contreforts  de 
pierres  seches,  nous  expliquaient  la  vie  nouvelle  des  indigenes,  leur 
travail  opiniatre  et  le  maigre  fruit  de  leurs  sueurs.  Ca  et  la  sortait  de 
terre  une  poignee  de  froment,  d'avoine  ou  de  mais  :  mais  la  principale 
culture  est  celle  des  oliviers,  et  I'oeil  se  promenait  tristement  sur  leur 
feuillage  bleuatre." — About,  Rome  Coniemporaine,  p.  312. 

"  Le  Cardinal  Antonelli  est  ne  dans  un  repaire.  Sonnino,  son  village, 
etait  plus  celebre  dans  I'histoire  du  crime  que  toute  I'Arcadie  dans  les 
annales  de  la  vertu.  Ce  nid  de  vautours  se  cachait  dans  les  montagnes 
du  Midi,  vers  la  frontiere  du  royaume  de  Naples.  Des  chemins  im- 
practicables  a  la  gendarmerie  serpentaient  a  travers  les  maquis  et  les 
halliers.  Quelques  forets  entrelacees  de  lianes,  quelques  ravins  pro- 
fonds,  quelques  grottes  tenebreuses,  formaient  un  paysage  a  souhait  pour 
la  commodite  du  crime.  Les  maisons  de  Sonnino,  vieilles,  mal  baties, 
jetees  les  unes  sur  les  autres  et  presque  inhabitables  a  I'homme, 
n'etaient  que  les  depots  du  pillage  et  les  magazins  de  la  rapine.  La 
population,  alerte  et  vigoureuse,  cultivait,  depuis  plusieurs  siecles,  le  vol 
a  main  armee  et  gagnait  sa  vie  a  coups  de  fusil.  Les  enfants  nouveau-nes 
respiraient  le  mepris  des  lois  avec  Fair  de  la  montagne,  et  suqaient, 
avec  le  kit  de  leurs  meres,  la  convoitise  du  bien  d'autrui.  lis  chaussaient 
de  bonne  heure  les  mocassins  de  cuir  crout,  ces  cldches  (cioccie)  avec 
lesquelles  ou   court  legerement  sur  les  rochers  les    plus    escarpees. 


SONNINO.  261 

Lorsqu'on  leur  avait  enseigne  I'art  de  poursuivre  et  d'echapper,  de 
prendre  et  de  n'etre  point  pris,  la  valeur  des  monnaies,  rarithmetique  des 
partages  et  les  principes  du  droit  des  gens  tel  qu'il  se  pratique  chez  les 
Apaches  ou  les  Comaches,  leur  education  etait  faite.  lis  apprenaient 
tout  seuls  k  jouir  du  bien  conquis  et  k  satisfaire  leurs  passions  dans  la 
victoire.  En  Tan  de  grace  1806,  cette  race  appetente  et  rusee,  gratifia 
ritalie  d'un  petit  montagnard  appele  Jacques  Antonelli." — About^  La 
Question  Romaine^  p.  139. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


THE  LATIN  SHORE. 


(A  public  carriage  leaves  the  Albano  station  every  morning  for  Porto 
d'Anzio,  i8  miles  distant,  on  the  arrival  of  the  first  train  from  Rome.  The 
extortionate  vetturini  at  Albano  itself  charge  from  50  to  60  francs  for  a 
carriage  to  go  and  return.  It  is  about  three  hours'  drive.  There  is  no 
regular  inn  at  Porto  d'Anzio,  but  comfortable  rooms  may  be  obtained, 
and  there  is  a  good  restaurant  with  a  private  room  for  breakfast  and 
dinner.  At  both  a  most  strict  bargain  should  be  made,  as  the  natives 
are  most  exorbitant  in  their  charges  to  strangers,  and  assert  that  the 
vant  of  more  custom  obliges  them  to  make  the  most  of  that  they  have. ) 

AFTER  leaving  the  Albano  station,  the  road  runs  at 
first  through  a  richly  cultivated  plain,  leaving  the  hill 
of  Mont  Giove  (Corioli)  on  the  left :  but  soon  it  reaches  a 


Corioli. 


v/ildemess  of  the  deadly  asphodel,  which  eats  up  the  whole 
countr)'  for  many  miles.  The  latter  part  of  the  drive  is  through 


PORTO  D'ANZIO.  263 

forest — a  continuation  of  tlie  beautiful  wood  we  have  seen 
at  Castel  Fusano — which  here  skirts  the  coast  for  so  great  a 
distance.  The  road  is  excellent  the  whole  way,  and  the 
descent  upon  the  white  houses  of  Porto  d'Anzio,  ranged 
along  the  blue  sea,  and  backed  by  swelling  hills,  reminds  one 
of  many  an  English  watering-place.  On  entering  the  town, 
we  pass,  on  the  left,  the  desolated  Villa  of  the  Pope. 

Xenagoras,  a  Greek  writer  quoted  by  Dionysius,  ascribes 
the  foundation  of  Antium  to  Anthias,  son  of  Circe  and 
Ulysses  :  Solinus  refers  it  to  Ascanius.  It  was  one  of  the 
Latin  cities  which  united  against  Rome  before  the  Battle  of 
Regillus,  but  was  afterwards  taken  by  the  Volscians,  under 
whom  it  rose  to  great  power  and  wealth.  Hither  Coriolanus 
retired  when  banished  from  Rome,  and  here  he  is  said  to 
have  died.  Dionysius  speaks  of  Antium  as  "  a  most  splendid 
city  of  the  Volscians."  During  the  latter  days  of  the  Re- 
public, and  under  the  Empire,  Antium  was  most  prosperous, 
and  it  became  the  favourite  resort  of  the  emperors.  Here 
Augustus  received  the  title  of  "  Pater  Patriae,"  and  here  Ca- 
ligula was  bom.  Nero,  who  was  also  born  at  Antium,  was 
greatly  devoted  to  it,  and  constructed  a  magnificent  port  here. 
He  was  staying  at  Antium  when  he  received  the  news  of  the 
burning  of  Rome.  Antoninus  Pius  built  an  aqueduct  for  the 
town,  and  Septimius  Severus  added  largely  to  the  imperial 
palace.  Cicero  had  a  villa  here,  and  amused  himself  by 
''counting  the  waves"  (Ad  Att.  11.  6).  The  place  declined 
with  the  Empire.  It  has  been  much  injured  of  late  years  by 
the  filling  up  of  its  port,  which  is  quite  useless  now  except 
for  very  small  vessels. 

The  existing  Roman  remains  of  Porto  d'Anzio  are  very 
obscure,  and   offer   the    merest    suggestion    of  its  former 


264  DA  yS  NEAR  ROME. 

grandeur.     There  is  no  trace  of  the  temple  of  Equestrian 

Fortune,  commemorated  by  Horace,  who  invokes  the  favour 

of  the  goddess  for  the  expedition  of  Augustus  to  Britain ; 

it  is  also  alluded  to  by  Martial : — 

"  Seu  tua  veridicae  dicunt  responsa  sorores, 
Plana  suburban!  qua  cubat  unda  freti." 

V.  Ep.  I. 

A  temple  of  Esculapius  was  famous  as  the  place  where 

the  Epidaurian  Serpent  rested  on  its  way  to  Rome. 

Ovid  speaks  of  a  temple  of  Apollo  : — 

"Et  tellus  Circsea,  et  spissi  litoris  Antium. 
Hue  ubi  veliferam  nautse  advertere  carinam, 
(Asper  enim  jam  pontus  erat,)  Deus  explicat  orbes, 
Perque  sinus  crebros  et  magna  volumina  labens, 
Templa  parentis  init,  flavum  tangentia  litus. " 

Metam.  xv.  718. 

The  Villa  of  Nero  (opposite  the  modern  barracks),  de- 
scribed by  Murray  as  a  fine  ruin  retaining  its  mosaic  pave- 
ments and  painted  walls,  has  never,  within  the  memory  of 
man,  presented  more  than  some  stumpy  brick  walls,  scarcely 
projecting  above  the  turf,  yet  here,  in  the  reign  of  Julius  11. , 
the  Apollo  Belvidere  was  found,  and,  a  century  afterwards, 
the  Borghese  Gladiator  of  the  Louvre.  The  size  of  the  old 
Antium  is  attested  by  the  marble  columns  and  pieces  of 
pedestal  scattered  over  the  fields  for  miles  around,  and  by 
the  opus-reticulatum  work  which  often  lines  the  cliffs  on  the 
sea-shore.  Projecting  far  into  the  sea,  worn  and  caverned 
by  the  waves,  are  the  picturesque  remains  of  the  two  moles 
of  Nero,  which  enclosed  the  ancient  harbour. 

The  town  is  very  small,  merely  a  knot  of- modern  houses 
grouped  around  a  square  (in  which  stands  the  new  church  of 
S.  Antonio),  with  a  few  more  ancient  fishermen's  cottages. 
These  line  one  side  of  a  pier,  constructed  by  the  architect 


PORTO  lyANZIO,  265 

Zinaghi,  for  Innocent  XII.,  at  a  cost  of  200,000  scudi,  upon 
one  of  the  old  moles  of  Nero,  of  which  he  filled  up  the  arches, 
and  thus  caused  the  accumulation  of  sand  which  has  de- 
stroyed the  harbour.  The  lighthouse  at  the  end  of  the  pier 
is  picturesque.  Behind  the  town  are  open  downs,  strewn 
here  and  there  with  fragments  of  ruin.  The  sands  in  either 
direction  are  delightful  for  walking,  and  the  views  towards 
Nettuno  are  most  attractive. 

"  Wlien  you  sit  in  the  window  of  your  chamber,  before  which  the 
Neapolitan  fishermen  are  seated  on  the  white  sands  mending  their  nets, 
the  whole  of  the  glorious  gulf  stretches  before  you,  and  you  see  the 
lovely  shore  as  far  as  the  Circean  promontory.  On  the  coast  near 
Anzio  rises  the  noble  villa  of  Prince  Borghese  in  a  wild  park  of  ilexes 
and  olive-trees,  further  off  are  the  castle  and  town  of  Nettuno,  brown 
and  picturesque,  built  into  the  sea,  and  celebrated  through  all  the  world 
for  the  beauty  of  its  women,  and  their  splendid  costume.  The  lines  of 
the  coast  become  now  ever  softer,  more  delicate,  and  more  drawn  out, 
till,  at  the  end,  a  little  white-glimmering  castle  rises  in  the  dreamy  dis- 
tance. This  castle  lends  a  melancholy  tone  to  shore  and  sea,  such  as 
the  Circean  cape  sheds  over  the  Homeric  poetry.  To  the  eyes  of  every 
German  it  has  a  magical  attraction,  and  his  heart  is  moved  to  sorrow 
and  tears,  for  it  suggests  one  of  the  greatest  landmarks  in  the  history  of 
his  fatherland.  It  is  yet  the  same  tower  of  Astura,  whither  Conradin, 
the  last  of  the  Hohenstaufens,  fled  after  the  lost  battle  of  Tagliacozzo, 
and  where  the  traitor  Frangipani  took  him  prisoner,  and  delivered  him 
into  the  hands  of  the  blood-thirsty  Charles  of  Anjou.  At  that  tower 
the  sun  of  the  Hohenstaufens  sank  into  the  sea." — Gregoroviiis,  The 
Latin  Shore. 


From  Porto  d' Anzio. 

The  fishing  boats  and  the  fishing  operations  are  a  great 
amusement  to  those  who  stay  long  at  Porto  d' Anzio. 


266  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"It  is  the  custom  of  the  fishermen  to  go  out  towards  Ave  Maria,  and 
to  fish  through  the  night.  That  which  is  caught  will  be  brought  with 
the  morning  into  the  straw-roofed  sheds,  but  in  the  evening  it  will  be 
registered  and  packed  up,  and  by  night  it  will  be  carried  in  carts  to 
Rome.  Evening  brings  with  it  an  exciting  scene.  The  clerks  sit  at  a 
table  with  a  lantern  and  register  the  fish  ;  all  around  fishermen  are  occu- 
pied in  bringing  in  fish  in  baskets,  while  others  pound  pieces  of  ice, 
and  lay  the  fish  upon  this  frozen  surface.  The  variety  and  wonderful 
foi-ms  of  these  creatures  of  the  sea  is  astonishing.  There  is  the  long 
Grongo,  the  great  and  handsome  Palombo,  the  beautiful  spotted  Murena, 
the  flounder-like  prickly  Ray,  the  great  multitude  of  glittering  Triglie 
and  Sardines,  and  the  well-tasting  Merluzzo.  Sometimes  a  Dolphin 
is  brought  up,  and  once  I  saw  in  a  fish-basket  two  Fesce-cane,  which 
had  been  found  here.  They  were  from  eight  to  ten  feet  long,  their 
black-steel  blue  colour  had  something  uncanny  about  it. — Gregorcrvius. 

To  the  left  of  the  town,  the  cliffs  are  covered  with  Mesem- 
bryanthemum,  hanging  in  huge  festoons  and  making  a  grand 
mass  of  purple  colour  with  their  great  sun-like  flowers,  like 
large  sea  anemonies.  Aloes  form  the  hedges  of  the  cottage- 
gardens. 

**  Precious  marbles  of  every  kind  are  found  here.  One  might  fill 
carts  with  gleaming  wave-polished  marble,  which  is  sprinkled  over  the 
shore,  go  as  far  as  one  will.  One  can  pick  up  Verde  Antico,  Giallo 
Antico,  the  gorgeous  oriental  Alabaster,  Porphyry,  Pavonazzetto,  Serpen- 
tine, and  blue  Smalt.  Wherever  these  rare  stones  exist,  a  glance  into  the 
waves  tells  us  where  they  come  from.  For  out  of  the  sea  rise  the  founda- 
tions of  ancient  Roman  water-palaces,  and  at  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  dis- 
tance from  Antium,  the  shore  is  nothing  less  than  a  ruin  of  continuous 
masonry.  They  look  like  masses  of  rock' and  the  over-throwings  of  a 
cliff,  and  if  one  examines  one  finds  that  they  are  simply  Roman  walls  of 
Peperino  stone,  and  the  imperishable  Pozzolano,  and  delicate  Roman 
reticulated  work.  Now  the  whole  weird  coast  yawns  with  grottoes 
and  halls  of  old  baths  and  villas,  and  the  foundations  of  temples  and 
palaces  crop  up  along  the  line  of  the  shore.  Here  stood  once  the 
beautiful  marble  villas  of  the  Emperors.  Here  Caligula  besported 
himself,  who  particularly  liked  Antium,  and  had  even  formed  a  plan  of 
making  it  his  residence  j  here  he  celebrated  his  nuptials  with  the  beau- 
tiful Lollia  Paulina.     Here  Nero,  who  was  born  in  Antium  and  planted 


NETTUNO.  267 

%  colony  there,  held  his  Bacchanalia  ;  here  he  made  his  triumphal  entry 
with  white  horses  after  his  return  from  his  debut  in  Greece. 

"  Also  in  earlier  days  Antium  was  the  beloved  holiday  resort  of  the 
Romans ;  Atticus,  Lucullus,  Cicero,  Meceenas,  and  Augustus,  had  here 
their  villas ;  and  where,  on  what  charming  hill,  on  what  lovely  Italian 
shore,  had  not  these  lucky  fellows  their  villas  !  How  this  shore  must 
once  have  shone  with  all  the  stones,  the  historic  fragments,  which  the 
waves  have  constantly  been  tossing  to  and  fro  for  centuries.  These 
ruins  bring  a  singular  elegiac -historical  character  into  the  delightful 
Idyll  of  Antium,  and  the  voice  full  of  memories  which  here  everywhere 
accompanies  the  wanderer,  heightens  not  a  little  the  attractions  of  the 
shore.  ...  In  Italy  one  cannot  give  oneself  up  to  the  quiet  influence  of 
Nature,  without  a  grave  spirit  of  the  classical  past  taking  possession 
of  the  soul,  and  leading  one  to  meditate  upon  the  recollections  of  its 
great  men.  So  that  one  can  sit  upon  the  ruined  palaces  of  the  Romans, 
and,  the  waves  murmuring  round,  may  exclaim  with  Horace  : — 

"  O  diva,  gratum  quze  regis  Antium, 
Praesens  vel  imo  toUere  de  gradu 
Mortale  corpus,  vel  superbos 
Vertere  funeribus  triumphos  !  " 

And  again  the  sight  of  the  beautiful  Cape  of  Circe  leads  to  the  song  of 
Homer,  while  the  ever-conspicuous  but  distant  Astura  draws  one  to 
other  associations  and  poems ;  so  that  three  periods  of  the  world's 
poetry  and  the  world's  culture  surround  one.  Homer,  Horace,  and  the 
Hohenstaufen  poet  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach." — Gregorovius. 

The  chief  feature  in  the  views  from  Porto  d'Anzio  is  the 
wonderfully  picturesque  little  town  of  Nettuno,  which  juts  out 
into  the  sea  about  i\  mile  to  the  south.  A  broad  road  lined 
with  trees  leads  to  it  from  Porto  d'Anzio,  but  the  pleasantest 
way  is  to  follow  the  shore  as  far  as  the  sea  allows,  and  then 
clamber  up  the  winding  path  beneath  the  villa  of  Prince 
Borghese,  which,  since  the  change  of  government  at  Rome, 
has  been  the  principal  residence  of  his  family. 

"  Porto  d'Anzio  possesses  scarcely  even  a  remnant  of  female  beauty 
and  no  national  costume,  because  it  is  made  up  of  a  growing  and  mis- 
cellaneous population.       But  both  noble  female  beauty  and  unique 


268        ^  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

national  character  adorn  the  little  town  of  Nettuno,  which  stands  pic- 
turesquely upon  the  eastern  shore,  the  black  walls  of  its  castle  sinking 
down  into  the  waves.  One  reaches  it  in  three  quarters  of  an  hour,  by 
a  straight  well-made  road  from  Porto  d'Anzio,  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful on  this  coast.  On  the  pleasantly  wooded  shore,  half-way  between 
the  two  villages,  stands  the  handsome  villa  of  Prince  Borghese,  who  is 
the  feudal  lord  of  all  the  land  in  the  district.  In  the  far  distance  rise 
the  Volscian  hills,  and  the  Cape  of  Circe  soars  up  in  its  still  shining 
form  so  enchantingly  painted  in  light  and  shadow,  that  it  would  recall 
in  its  outline  and  appearance  the  most  beautiful  rocks  in  Europe — the 
island  of  Capri  and  the  mountain  of  San  Pellegrino  near  Palermo." 
— Gregoravius. 

At  the  entrance  of  Nettuno  is  a  machicolated  but  now 
decaying  fortress  begun  by  Alexander  VI.  and  finished  by 
Alexander  VII.  The  town  is  supposed  to  occupy  the  site 
of  the  ancient  Caeno  mentioned  by  Dionysius  as  a  depend- 
ency of  Antium.  Nettuno  is  surrounded  with  walls  and 
Guelphic  battlements,  and  is  full  of  picturesque  nooks  and 
corners,  and  fragments,  probably  of  the  temple  of  Neptune, 
whence  its  name  is  derived.  The  number  of  women  passing 
with  brazen  conche  upon  their  heads  guided  us  to  a  quaint 
well,  near  which  is  a  beautiful  old  Gothic  house,  with  twisted 
columns  dividing  its  windows,  and  a  pig  on  the  coat  of 
arms  which  adorns  it.  Beneath  the  town  a  wave-beaten 
terrace  forms  a  wall  only  accessible  in  calm  weather ;  in 
storms  the  waves  beat  furiously  against  the  old  houses 
themselves. 

The  magnificent  Saracenic  dress,  described  by  Murray  as 
still  existing  here,  has  long  ceased  to  be  worn.  The  people 
were  persuaded  that  a  great  visitation  of  cholera  was  a  judg- 
ment from  Heaven  for  their  barbaric  costume,  and  it  was  left 
off  by  universal  consent  !  Those  who  wear  any  costume 
here  now,  adopt  that  of  the  towns  in  the  Volscian  Hills. 

It  is  a  charming  drive  from  hence  to  Astura,  but  for  pedes- 


EXCURSION  TO  ASTURA, 


269 


trians  the  walk  is  somewhat  dangerous  owing  to  the  vast 
herds  of  buffaloes  and  bovi  which  come  down  every  day 


In  the  Church  at  Nettuno. 


through  the  forest,  with  the  early  morning,  to  the'  sea, 
and  spend  the  day  upon  the  shore.  They  are  generally 
unattended  by  herdsmen,  and  lie  in  black  battalions  on  the 
white  sand  between  the  forest  and  the  waves.  Some  of  the 
bulls  are  most  magnificent,  with  horns  three  feet  long.  They 
are  very  fierce,  and  can  only  be  kept  in  order  by  the  Guardia 
della  Campagna,  who  rides  after  them  and  manages  them 
wonderfully  with  his  long  lance.  But  far  more  to  be  feared 
are  the  savage  red-eyed  buffaloes,  which  when  they  pursue  a 
man,  do  not  attempt  to  toss  him,  but  knock  him  down,  and 
tread  upon  him  till  they  have  beaten  all  the  breath  out  of 
his  body.  They  give  the  milk  from  which  the  Provatura, 
or  buffalo-cheese  much  eaten  by  the  peasantry,  is  derived. 
The  flesh  is  coarse  and  hard,  and  is  for  the  most  part  sold 
to  the  poor  Jews  in  the  Ghetto. 

The  shore  is  lined  by  the  forest — arbutus,  juniper,  phillyrea, 
tall  flowering  heath,  and  myrtles  which   have  grown  into 


270  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

great  trees,  and  are  all  tangled  together  with  garlands  of 
smilax  and  honeysuckle. 

"  But  now  all  sign  of  civilized  life  ceases  with  Nettuno,  for  immedi- 
ately behind  the  town  begins  the  Pontine  wilderness.  The  brushwood 
extends  from  this  to  Terracina.  Not  a  single  human  dwelling  exists 
again  upon  the  coast,  only  solitary  "towers  rise  out  of  the  romantic  soli- 
tude, at  distances  of  about  two  miles  from  one  anoth.er.  The  meJan- 
choly  desolation  of  this  shore  and  the  impressiveness  of  its  time-honoured 
solitude  is  great.  One  feels  as  if  one  were  no  longer  on  the  classic 
shore  of  Italy,  one  seems  to  be  wandering  on  the  wild  coasts  of  the  In- 
dian America.  The  constant  murmur  of  the  sighing  sea-waves,  the 
summer  breeze  breathing  over  the  ever-smooth,  ever- white -sanded 
shore,  the  endless  deep  green  wood,  which  follows  the  sea  on  and  on  at 
a  hundred  paces  distant,  the  shrill  cry  of  the  hawks  and  falcons,  the  quiet 
and  high-hovering  eagle,  the  stamping  and  bellowing  of  the  herds  of 
wild  cattle,  air,  colour,  sound,  every  existence  and  element  is  in  unison 
with  the  most  entire  impression  of  an  old-world  wilderness." — Gregoro- 
vius. 

It  is  seven  miles  from  Nettuno  to  Asfura,  whose  tall 
tower  is  visible  from  so  great  a  distance.  This  and  a  little 
chapel  are  the  only  buildings  which  rise  out  of  the  vast 
solitude.  Cicero,  who  had  a  favourite  villa  at  Astura,  de- 
scribes it,  in  writing  to  Atticus,  as  "  a  pleasant  place,  stand- 
ing in  the  sea  itself,  and  visible  both  from  Antium  and  Cir- 
ceii."  A  marble  pavement  on  the  shore,  and  the  massive 
foundations  on  which  the  tower  is  built,  are  remains  of  the 
villa  of  Cicero,  but  the  latter  is  no  longer  an  island,  but  con- 
nected with  the  mainland  by  a  causeway  of  masonry. 
Nothing  can  be  more  picturesque  or  romantic  than  this 
utterly  solitary  wave-beaten  castle  ;  nothing  more  melancholy 
than  its  associations.  Hither,  in  Nov.  B.C.  44,  Marcus  Cicero 
fled  from  his  Tusculan  villa,  upon  hearing  that  his  name 
was  upon  the  proscription-list  of  the  triumvirate,  hoping  to 
join  Brutus  in  Macedonia.   His  brother  Quintus  accompanied 


ASTURA.  2Jt 

him.  They  were  carried  in  litters,  and  conversed  as  they 
went.  On  the  way  they  remembered  that  they  had  not 
taken  sufficient  money  with  them,  and  Quintus,  as  being  the 
brother  least  in  danger,  returned  to  Rome  to  fetch  it,  and 
was  there  taken  and  put  to  death  with  his  son.  Marcus 
Cicero  embarked  at  Astura  in  safety,  but  sea-sickness  induced 
him  to  land  for  the  night  at  Formiae  (Mola  di  Gaeta),  where 
he  had  a  villa,  and  he  was  murdered  there,  while  endea- 
vouring to  escape,  within  a  mile  of  his  own  house.  Au- 
gustus Caesar  is  said  to  have  been  first  attacked  at  Astura 
by  the  ilhiess — a.  dysentery — of  which  he  died  (August,  a.d. 
14)  at  Nola.  Strange  to  say  it  was  also  at  the  fatal  Astura 
that  his  successor  Tiberius  was  stricken  with  his  last  illness.* 
Strangest  of  all,  Caligula  also  received  at  Astura  the  fatal 
omen  of  his  approaching  end,  when  about  to  sail  from 
thence  to  Antium. 

But  these  ancient  associations  of  Astura  are  less  sad  than 
those  which  cling  around  the  octangular  mediaeval  tower, 
which  was  built  by  the  great  family  of  the  Frangipani  upon 
the  Roman  foundations.  Hither  (1268),  after  the  lost  battle 
of  Tagliacozzo,  fled  the  brave  young  Conradin  of  Hohen- 
staufen,  with  his  faithful  friends  Frederick  of  Austria,  Count 
Lancia  and  his  sons,  and  the  two  Counts  of  Gherardesca. 
The  people  of  Astura  gave  Conradin  a  vessel  in  which  his 
I)arty  embarked  in  safety  for  Pisa,  when  the  Lord  of  Astura, 
Giovanni  Frangipani,t  returning  to  his  castle,  heard  what 
had  happened,  and  roused  by  the  hope  of  a  reward  from 
Charles  of  Anjou,  pursued  them  in  a  larger  vessel  and  brought 
them  back.  Conradin  implored  Frangipani,  who  had 
received  great  benefits  and  even  the  honours  of  knighthood 

♦  Suetonius,  Ixxii.  f  Not  Jacopo,  as  Murray  says. 


272  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

from  his  father,  to  save  his  life,  and  not  to  deliver  him  up 
to  Charles.  He  even  promised  to  give  his  hand  to  the 
daughter  of  Frangipani  if  he  would  permit  him  to  escape. 

But  the  Lord  of  Astura,  unmoved  by  the  misfortunes  of 
the  prince,  began  at  once  to  propose  terms  for  his  surrender 
to  Robert  of  Lavena,  who  had  appeared  before  the  walls  to 
demand  the  prisoners  for  Charles,  and  only  concealed  them 
in  a  remote  tower  that  he  might  make  better  terms.  Con- 
ditions were  soon  after  agreed  upon  with  the  Cardinal  of 
Terracina,  and  Conradin  and  his  companions,  sold  for  large 
estates  in  the  princedom  of  Benevento,  were  hurried  through 
the  hills  to  Palestrina,  and  thence  to  Naples,  where  they 
were  cruelly  executed,  Conradin,  with  his  last  breath,  saying : 
"  I  cite  my  judge  before  the  highest  tribunal,  my  blood  shed 
on  this  spot  shall  cry  to  Heaven  for  vengeance." 

The  Frangipani  did  not  long  enjoy  their  ill-gotten  gains, 
and  the  only  son  of  Giovanni  perished  in  the  very  castle  of 
Astura,  where  he  had  betrayed  his  friend. 

"  In  1286,  quatre  ans  apres  les  Vepres  Siciliennes,  un  amiral  de 
Jacques  d'Arragon  emporta  Astura,  qu'il  reduisit  en  cendres.  Les  biens 
des  Frangipani  furent  ravages  ;  Jacob,  le  fils  de  Jean,  perit  dans  le 
combat.  Sa  posterite  s'eteignit,  et,  de  cette  branche,  dont  le  blason 
etait  tache  du  sang  royal,  11  ne  reste  qu'un  souvenir  de  deshonneur." 
Cherrier,  iv.  p.  212. 

The  castle  afterwards  became  a*  fortress  of  the  Gaetani,  then 
of  the  Malabranca,  the  Orsini,  and  of  the  Colonna,  whose 
arms  still  appear  upon  its  walls,  and  who  sold  it  to  Clement 
VHI.  in  1594.  It  now  belongs  to  the  Borghese,  and  its 
little  garrison  of  eight  men  spend  here  a  life  of  isolation  like 
that  of  a  desert  island,  while  a  single  cannon  stands  upon 
the  ramparts. 


THE  TOR  A  CC 10.  273 

"  Quand  Cic^ron  disait  d' Astura  :  lieu  agrSabU^  il  montrait  ce  lieu  tel 
que  la  civilisation  et  I'elegance  romaine  I'avaient  fait.  Aujourd'hui,  en 
presence  de  la  tour  solitaire  d'Astura,  si  notre  regard  se  promene  sur 
cette  plage  triste,  inhabitee,  funeste  k  Auguste,  k  Tibere,  k  Conradin, 
nous  n'apercevons  que  la  foret,  les  sables  et  la  mer.  De  nos  jours  cet 
endroit  sinistre  ressemble,  mieux  qu'au  temps  de  Ciceron,  k  ce  qu'il 
ctait  avant  la  naissance  du  premier  Remain." — Amp^re^  Hist.  Rom,  i. 
51- 

Near  the  castle  the  little  river  Fiume  Conca,  formerly  called 
the  Astura,  flows  into  the  sea.  It  rises  in  the  Alban  Hills. 
On  its  banks  the  last  great  battle  between  the  Romans  and 
Latins  was  fought  in  b.  c.  338,  when  O.  Maenius  the  consul 
totally  defeated  the  united  forces  of  Antium,  Lanuvium, 
Aricia,  and  Velitrae. 

Three  miles  inland  from  Astura  is  a  curious  Roman  tomb 
now  called  //  Toraccio.  It  has  been  supposed,  without  the 
slightest  foundation,  to  be  the  tomb  of  Tullia  daughter  of 
Cicero,  who  died  at  Astura.* 

The  shore  beyond  Astura  is  girt  by  the  strip  of  forest 
which  divides  it  from  the  Pontine  Marshes.  Three  lakes 
break  the  inland  expanse, — the  Lago  Fogliano,  the  Lago  di 
Caprolace,  and  the  Lago  di  San  Paolo.  They  are  much 
frequented  by  the  peasants  for  the  fishing  they  afford,  but 
few  strangers  will  venture  into  this  plague-stricken  region, 
and  will  rather  go  round  by  Velletri  and  Terracina  to  visit  the 
grand  Circean  Promontory  which  rises  so  gloriously  at  the 
end  of  the  flats,  out  of  the  blue  waters. 

We  were  at  Porto  d'Anzio  on  Good  Friday,  when,  in  the 
dark  evening,  the  town  was  illuminated,  every  fisherman's  hut 
along  the  pier  lighting  its  rows  of  tiny  earthenware  lamps, 

•  Middleton  {Life  of  Cicero,  vol.  ii.  365),  on  authority  of  Plutarch,  says  she  died 
in  the  orator's  house  at  Rome.     M.\xTrAy  {Handbook,  453),  on  no  authority  at  all,  says 
she  died  at  Astura.    Drumaon  proves  from  Cicero's  letters  that  she  died  at  Tusculuui, 
VOL.    II.  18 


274 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 


whose  rsiys  were  reflected  a  thousand-fold  in  the  water  of  the 
bay.     Then,  when  all  was   ready,  the  church  doors  were 


Good  Friday,  Porto  d'Anzio. 

thrown  open,  and  amid  a  clash  of  music,  and  loud  chanting 
of  priests,  the  dead  Christ  was  borne  through  the  town, 
followed  by  the  figure  of  "  Our  Lady  of  Sorrow "  and  the 
images  of  all  the  favourite  local  saints,  surrounded  by  flash- 
ing torches.  The  streets  were  thronged,  cannon  fired,  and 
all  the  people  knelt  as  the  procession  passed,  many  praying, 
some  weeping. 

The  coast  between  Porto  d'Anzio  and  Ostia  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  visit  except  on  horseback,  and  then  leave  must  be 
obtained  to  sleep  in  the  old  Chigi  Palace  of  Castel  Fusano. 


THE  SILVA  LAURENTINA. 


275 


The  greater  part  of  the  way  leads  through  the  grand  imme- 
morial forest  of  Silva  Laurentina,  part  of  which  was  sacred  to 


Good  Friday,  Porto  d'Anzio. 

Picus  and  Faunus,  where  the  spirit  of  Virgil  still  seems  to 
pervade  the  silent  depths  of  the  wood,  and  where,  while  the 
buildings  have  passed  away  and  the  very  sites  of  the  towns 
whose  foundation  he  describes  are  forgotten  or  disputed. 
Nature  remains  absolutely  unchanged — the  same  pines  raise 
their  vast  umbrella-like  heads  on  the  stars  (^Mn.  xL  361),  the 
same  thickets  of  brambles  and  impervious  brushwood  are 
ready  to  mislead  the  wanderer  (ix.  381),  the  same  springs 
sparkle  in  its  deep  recesses  (vii.  85). 


276  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  easiest  way  of  reaching  Ardea  is  from  Albano  or 
Rome.  The  traveller  who  follows  the  track  of  the  charcoal 
burners  near  the  coast  from  Porto  d'Anzio  will  in  turn  pass 
Torre  Caldana,  Torre  di  S.  Anastasia,  and  Torre  di  S.  Lo- 
renzo. Then,  crossing  the  stream  Fosso  della  Moletta,  he 
at  length  sees  Ardea  rising  before  him  on  the  top  of  a  rock, 
three  miles  from  the  sea,  and  20  miles  from  Rome. 

Desolate  and  forlorn  as  it  is  now,  and  almost  totally  de- 
serted by  its  plague-stricken  inhabitants  during  the  summei 
months,  Ardea  was  once  one  of  the  most  important  as  wel 
as  one  of  the  wealthiest  cities  of  Latium.  Tradition  ascribes 
its  foundation  to  Danae,  the  mother  of  Perseus. 

**  Protenus  hinc  fuscis  tristis  dea  tollitur  alis 
Audacis  Rutuli  ad  muros  :  quam  dicitur  urbem 
Acrisioneis  Danae  fundasse  colonis 
Prsecipiti  delata  Noto.     Locus  Ardea  quondam 
Dictus  avis  ;  et  nunc  magnum  manet  Ardea  nomen. " 

Virgily  Mn.  vii.  408. 

Livy  and  Silius  Italicus  mention  the  tradition  of  Ardea  having 

largely  contributed  to  the  foundation  of  the  Spanish  Sagun- 

tum  : — 

"...  misit  largo  quam  dives  alumno, 
Magnanimis  regnata  vivis,  nunc  Ardea  nomen." 

Sil.  Ital.  i.  291. 

In  the  story  of  ^Eneas,  Ardea  appears  as  the  capital  of  the 
Rutuli  and  the  residence  of  their  king  Turnus,  who  was 
dependent  on  the  Latin  king,  Latinus,  though  holding  a  so- 
vereignty of  his  own..  It  was  during  the  siege  of  Ardea  by 
Tarquinius  Superbus  that  the  tragedy  of  Lucretia  occurred, 
which  led  to  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy. 

**  Cingitur  inferea  Romanis  Ardea  signis, 
Et  patitur  lentas  obsidione  moras." 

Ovid^  Fast.  ii.  721, 


ARDEA.  277 

It  was  at  Ardea  that  Camillus  took  refuge  in  his  exile ;  and 
its  people  are  said  to  have  contributed  greatly  to  victories 
which  the  Romans  gained  over  the  Gauls.  From  this  time 
Ardea  lapsed  into  the  condition  of  an  ordinary  Roman  co- 
lony, and  was  one  of  the  twelve  which  declared  themselves 
unable  (b.  c.  209)  to  furnish  supplies  of  provisions  and  men 
to  Rome  during  the  second  Punic  war.  The  unhealthiness 
of  the  situation  hastened  its  decay.     Martial  alludes  to  it : — 

"  Ardea  solstitio,  Castranaque  rura  petantur, 
Quique  Cleonseo  sidere  fervet  ager." 

iv.  60. 

Many  great  Roman  personages  however  had  villas  here, 
among  them  Atticus  the  friend  of  Cicero ;  and  the  town 
spoken  of  as  "  castellum  Ardeae,"  in  the  Middle  Ages,  has 
never  quite  ceased  to  exist,  but  has  continued  to  occupy  the 
rocky  platform,  which  gained  its  name  from  Ardua — the  cliff- 
girt. 

The  existing  village  and  its  castle,  which  belongs  to  the 
Duke  Cesarini,  occupy  an  isolated  rock,  evidently  the  an- 
cient citadel,  which  is  joined  by  a  narrow  neck  of  land  to  a 
larger  platform,  still  called  Civita  Vecchia,  and  once  covered 
by  the  ancient  city,  of  which  not  a  vestige  remains.  The 
citadel  was  surrounded  by  walls  built  of  tufa  in  square  blocks. 

*'  The  isthmus  (uniting  the  citadel  to  the  town),  having  been  cut  through 
in  a  very  singular  manner,  has  left  three  deep  and  broad  ditches,  separ- 
ated by  two  piers  of  natural  rock.  This  is  the  more  curious,  as  it  does 
not  appear  that  these  piers  could  have  served  as  a  bridge  to  the  citadel, 
on  account  of  their  distance  from  each  other  ;  and  though  the  ditch 
added  to  the  strength  of  the  fortress,  yet  this  cannot  be  supposed  to 
have  been  completely  separated  from  the  city.  Moreover,  the  rock  of 
the  citadel  is  much  higher  than  these  two  natural  piers. 

*'  Two  streams,  one  of  which  is  evidently  derived  from  the  Lake  of 
Nemi,  had,  long  before  Ardea  was  built,  worn  valleys,  which  had  left 


278  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

an  eminence  between  them  as  a  site  for  the  city.  At  the  western  side 
of  the  city,  these  valleys  approach  each  other,  leaving  a  narrow  isthmus 
for  the  entrance  to  the  city  from  the  east ;  this  isthmus  is  considerably 
strengthened  by  a  high  mound,  or  agger,  extending  from  valley  to  valley, 
which  supported,  or  rather  backed,  a  wall,  whence,  in  all  probability, 
the  idea  of  the  Roman  agger  of  Servius  Tullius  was  originally  taken.  A 
gap  or  cut  exists,  through  which  was  the  ancient  entrance  to  the  city  ;  and 
in  this  is  the  ruin  of  a  tower,  fixing  the  site  of  the  gate  towards  Aricia. 
Still  more  distant  from  the  city  is  another  similar  mound,  stretching 
also  from  valley  to  valley.  These  mounds  are  so  high  that  when  the 
sun  is  over  the  Mediterranean  they  are  distinguishable  from  Albano  by 
the  naked  eye."— ^'/r  W.  Cell. 

Half  a  mile  from  Ardea,  in  the  direction  of  the  sea,  at  a 
spot  called  Rudera,  the  rock  is  full  of  caverns,  and  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  necropolis  of  the  ancient  city.  There 
are  no  remains  of  the  temple  of  Juno  mentioned  by  Pliny, 
who  describes  it  as  adorned  with  ancient  paintings  of  great 
beauty,  so  much  esteemed  that  the  artist,  a  Greek, — "  Mar- 
cus Ludius  Elotas  (Etolia  oriundus  " — was  rewarded  with 
the  freedom  of  the  city.  Not  far  from  Ardea,  probably  in 
the  direction  of  Antium,  was  the  Aphrodisium  or  shrine  of 
Venus,  mentioned  by  Strabo  (v.  232)  and  Pliny  (iii.  5).  The 
site  of  the  Castrum  Inni,  or  of  Pan,  is  supposed  by  Nibby 
to  be  somewhat  identified  by  the  name  Fosso  delP 
Incastro  applied  to  one  of  the  streams  which  flow  by  Ardea. 
Martial  mentions  it,  in  the  lines  already  quoted,  and  Silius 
Italicus  : — 

"  Sacra  manus  Rutuli,  servant  qui  Daunia  regna, 
Laurentique  domo  gaudent,  et  fonte  Numici, 
Quos  Castrum,  Phrygibusque  gravis  quondam  Ardea  misit. " 

viii.  359. 

On  leaving  Ardea  we  pass  through  the  country  where 
Juvenal  says  that  the  Roman  emperors  used  to  breed  their 
elephants. 


THE  RIO  TOR  TO.  279 

"  Elian  gives  an  account  of  the  elephants  bred  and  disciplined  in  the 
'  Roman  territory.  *  They  marched  in  troops  into  the  amphitheatre,  scat- 
tering flowers,  and  were,  to  the  number  of  six  of  each  sex,  feasted  in 
public  on  splendid  triclinia,  their  food  being  spread  on  tables  of  cedar 
and  ivory,  in  gold  and  silver  dishes  and  goblets.  Pliny  {Nat.  Hist.  viii. 
2)  says,  that  four  of  them  even  carried  on  a  litter  a  supposed  sick  com- 
panion, walking  like  a  dancer  upon  a  rope. " — Sir  W.  Cell. 

Four  miles  and  a  half  from  Ardea,  at  the  church  of  Santa 
Procuia,  the  road  crosses  the  frequently  dry  bed  of  the  Rio 
Torto.  which  has  been  identified  with  the  Numicius,  on  the 
banks  of  which  the  great  battle  was  fought  between  the  Tro- 
jans and  Rutulians,  in  which  -^neas  fell,  and  whose  waves 
are  supposed  to  have  carried  away  his  body,  which  was 
never  found.  The  descriptions  which  the  poets  give  answer 
to  the  present  appearance  of  the  river.  In  the  Metamor- 
phoses, Ovid  says  : — 

•'  Litus  adit  Laurens,  ubi  tectus  arundine  serpit 
In  freta  flumineis  vicina  Numicius  undis." 

xiv.  598. 

and  Silius  Italicus  : — 

"  Haud  procul  hinc  parvo  descendens  fonte  Numicus 
Labitur  et  leni  per  valles  volvitur  amne. " 

viii.  179. 

Near  the  coast  the  Numicius  still  spreads  into  a  marsh — 
the  Stagna  Laurentia  of  Silius.  On  its  banks  ^neas  was 
honoured  in  a  temple  under  the  name  of  Jupiter  Indiges. 

*•  Impiger  ^nea  volitantis  frater  Amoris, 
Troia  qui  profugis  sacra  vehis  ratibus, 
Jam  tibi  Laurentes  assignat  Jupiter  agros, 
Jam  vocat  errantes  hospita  terra  Lares. 
Illic  Sanctus  eris,  cum  te  veneranda  Numici 
Unda  Deum  coelo  miserit  Indigetem." 

Tibullux^  il  El.  5. 


28o  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  Sugarefo,  which  flows  into  the  Rio  Torto,  is  believed 
to  be  the  stream  of  Anna  Perenna,  in  which  Anna,  the  un- 
happy sister  of  Dido,  is  said  to  have  been  carried  away,  when 
flying  from  the  palace  of  ^neas,  and  to  have  been  borne 
into  the  "horned  Numicius."* 

"Comiger  hanc  cupidis  rapuisse  Numicius  undis 
Creditiir,  et  stagnis  occuluisse  suis. 

Ipsa  loqui  visa  est,  '  Placidi  sum  Nympha  Numici : 
Amne  perenne  latens  Anna  Perenna  vocor," 

Ovid,  East.  iii.  646. 

Eight  miles  from  Ardea  we  reach  La  Solfatara  ( 1 5  miles 
from  Rome),  with  sulphur  springs,  identical  with  the  "  Fons 
in  Ardeatino,"  which  Vitruvius  mentions  as  cold,  sulphureous, 
and  of  an  unpleasant  smell.  It  is  probably  also  the  site  of 
the  oracle  of  Faunus  consulted  by  Latinus,  king  of  Lauren- 
tum,  on  the  coming  of  ^neas,  who  is  hardly  likely  to  have 
gone  so  far  as  the  Albunea  near  Tibur. 

'  *  At  rex  sollicitus  monstris,  oracula  Fauni, 
Fatidici  genitoris,  adit,  lucosque  sub  alta 
Consulit  Albunea  :  nemorum  quae  maxima  sacro 
Fonte  sohat,  saevamque  exhalat  opaca  mephitim." 

Virgil,  ^En.  vii.  81. 

Hitherto  we  have  followed  the  ancient  Via  Ardeatina 
from  Ardea,  the  paving-blocks  of  the  old  road  remaining  in 
many  places.  From  hence  it  turns  off  inland  to  Rome, 
by  the  Tor  di  Nona,  Cicchignola  (a  mediaeval  tower  added 
to  and  turned  into  a  villa  by  Leo  XII.),  and  Tor  Narancia, 
till  it  joins  the  Via  Appia  near  the  church  of  Domine  quo 
Vadis. 

A  road  practicable  for  carriages  leads  from  La  Solfatara, 

*  From  its  windings. 


PR  A  TIC  A.  281 

passing  the  church  of  Sta.  Petronilla  and  through  a  forest,  to 
Pratica^  the  ancient  Lavinium,  17  miles  from  Rome,  and 
3  from  the  sea-coast. 

According  to  the  tradition,  the  city  of  Lavinium  was 
founded  by  ^Eneas,  shortly  after  his  landing  in  Italy,  and 
was  called  by  him  after  the  name  of  his  wife  Lavinia,  daugh- 
ter of  king  Latinus.  This,  from  a  resemblance  of  names,  has 
been  confused  with  Lanuvium,  now  Citt^-Lavinia,  where  an 
absurd  tradition,  regardless  of  geographical  possibilities, 
shows,  fixed  in  a  wall,  the  iron  ring  to  which  the  vessel  of 
^neas  was  attached. 

"The  coast  of  Latium  is  a  sandbank,  where  nothing  grows  but  firs  ; 
and  ^neas  might  well  be  sorry  that  his  fate  had  brought  him  to  so  poor 
a  country.  But  he  was  reminded  of  the  oracle,  that  his  colony  should 
be  guided,  like  those  of  the  Sabellians,  by  an  animal  to  its  promised 
abode,  when  a  pregnant  sow  designed  for  sacrifice  broke  loose,  and 
escaped  to  the  bushes  on  a  more  fruitful  eminence.  Here  it  farrowed 
thirty  young  ones,  and  thus  not  only  signified  the  spot  where  Lavinium 
was  to  be  built,  but  also  the  number  of  years  that  were  to  elapse  before 
Alba  became  the  capital  in  its  stead,  as  well  as  the  number  of  the 
Latin  townships. 

**  At  the  founding  of  Lavinium  the  gods  gave  signs  of  their  presence. 
The  forest  on  the  site  of  the  future  city  caught  fire  of  itself.  A  wolf 
was  seen  bringing  dry  sticks  in  his  mouth  to  feed  the  flame  :  an  eagle 
fanned  it  with  his  wings.  But  along  with  them  came  also  a  fox,  that 
dipped  its  tail  in  water,  and  tried  to  extinguish  the  fire  ;  and  it  was  not 
till  they  had  driven  him  away  several  times,  that  the  other  two  were  able 
to  get  rid  of  him.  This  indicated  that  the  people,  whose  mother  city 
was  building,  would  have  hard  struggles  to  establish  their  power  against 
its  obstinate  enemies.  Bronze  images  of  the  three  fated  animals  were 
set  up  in  the  market-place  of  Lavinium." — Niebuhr's  Hist,  of  Rome. 

"Aujourd'hui  meme  les  souvenirs  locaux  d'Enee  n'ont  pas  entiere- 
ment  peri.  Aux  environs  de  Lavinium  une  petite  riviere  s'appelle 
encore  rio  di  Turno,  ruisseau  de  Tumus,  et  une  colline  pres  d'Ard^e  a 
ete  indiquee  k  M.  Abeken  par  un  jeune  gar9on,  qui  confondait  les 
Troyens  et  les  Rutules,  comme  portant  le  nom  de  montagne  de  Troie, 
monte  di  Troja," — AmJ)ire,  Hist.  Rom.  i.  215. 


282  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME 

When,  thirty  years  after  its  foundation,  Ascanius,  the  son 
of  ^neas,  removed  the  poUtical  capital  of  the  Latins  to 
Alba,  the  household  gods  persistently  returned  at  night  to 
their  old  dwellings,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  allow  them  to 
remain  there,  and  to  send  back  their  priests  to  the  number 
of  six  hundred.  Thus  Lavinium  not  only  continued  to  exist, 
but  grew  to  be  regarded  as  a  kind  of  religious  metropolis,  its 
gods,  to  a  very  late  period,  being  regarded  as  equally  the 
property  of  Rome  and  of  all  Latium. 

"La  culte  des  Penates  aurait  pu  nous  offrir  un  rapprochement  frap- 
pant  entre  une  legende  antique  et  une  legende  moderne.  On  raccontait 
que  les  Penates  ayant  ete  transportes  par  Ascagne  dans  la  ville  d'Albe, 
quitterent  leur  nouveau  sejour  et  revinrent  a  Lavinium.  C'est  ainsi 
que  le  celebre  enfant  Jesus  de  cire,  si  venere  a  Rome  sous  le  nom  de 
Bambino,  ayant  ete  enleve,  revint,  le  lendemain  matin,  frapper  a  la 
porte  de  I'eglise  dAra-Coeli." — Ampere,  Hist.  Rom.  i.  218. 

Dionysius  speaks  of  Lavinium  as  the  "  metropolis  of  the 
Latins."  Tatius,  the  colleague  of  Romulus,  was  killed  by 
the  cooks  with  their  spits  during  a  solemn  sacrifice  at 
Lavinium,  in  revenge  for  depredations  which  his  followers 
had  made  upon  the  Lavinium  territory.  Collatinus,  the 
husband  of  Lucretia  and  the  first  Roman  consul,  retired  with 
all  his  family  to  Lavinium,  when  he  was  banished  from  Rome 
on  account  of  his  parentage,  because  he  was  son  of  Anins 
and  brother  of  Tarquinius  Priscus.  Lavinium  was  besieged 
and  taken  by  Coriolanus. 

"  Strabo  speaks  of  Lavinium  as  presenting  the  mere  vestiges  of  a  city, 
but  still  retaining  its  sacred  rites,  which  were  believed  to  have  been 
transmitted  from  the  days  of  ^Eneas.  Dionysius  also  tells  us  that  the 
memory  of  the  three  sacred  animals— the  eagle,  the  wolf,  and  the  fox — 
which  were  connected  by  a  well-known  legend  with  the  foundation  of 
Lavinium,  was  preserved  by  the  figures  of  them  still  extant  in  his  time  in 
the  forum  of  that  town  ;  while,  according  to  Varro,  not  only  was  there  a 


PRATICA.  283 

similar  bronze  figure  of  the  celebrated  sow  with  her  thirty  young  ones, 
but  part  of  the  flesh  of  the  sow  itself  was  still  preserved  in  pickle  and 
shown  by  the  priests.  *  .  .  .  .  We  learn  from  a  letter  of  Sym- 
machus  that  Lavinium  was  still  existing  as  a  municipal  town  as  late  as 
A.D.  391,  and  still  retained  its  ancient  religious  character.  Macrobius 
also  informs  us  that  in  his  time  it  was  still  customary  for  the  Roman 
consuls  and  pnetors,  when  entering  on  their  office,  to  repair  to 
Lavinium  to  offer  certain  sacrifices  there  to  Vesta  and  the  Penates, — 
a  custom  which  appears  to  have  been  transmitted  without  interruption 
from  a  very  early  period.  The  final  decay  of  Lavinium  was  probably 
produced  by  the  fall  of  paganism,  and  the  consequent  extinction  of  that 
religious  reverence  which  had  apparently  been  the  principal  means  of 
its  preservation  for  a  long  while  before. " — Smith's  Did.  of  Griek  and 
Roman  Geography. 

The  town  is  situated,  like  Ardea,  upon  an  almost  isolated 
hill,  united  to  the  table-land  by  a  Uttle  isthmus,  and  sur- 
rounded everywhere  else  by  deep  ravines.  The  natural 
fortifications  of  tufa  rock  appear  to  have  been  strengthened 
by  artificial  cutting  away,  and  some  remains  of  ancient  walls 
may  be  traced.  The  area  of  the  town  must  always  have 
been  ver}^  small,  and  its  principal  building  is  now  a  great 
castle  of  Prince  Borghese,  with  a  tall  tower.  There  are  no 
remains  of  the  temple  of  Venus  which  is  mentioned  by  many- 
classical  authors,  but  it  is  supposed  to  have  occupied  the 
comer  of  the  platform  at  the  end  nearest  the  sea.  The 
place  is  almost  deserted  owing  to  the  malaria,  and  the  de- 
scription of  Mrs.  Eaton's  visit  to  the  neighbouring  Ostia 
would  now  apply  even  better  to  this  place. 

"It  presented  the  strange  spectacle  of  a  town  without  inhabitants. 
After  some  beating  and  hallooing  at  the  shut-up  door  of  one  of  the  houses, 
a  woman,  unclosing  the  shutter  of  an  upper  window,  presented  her 
ghastly  face  ;  and  having  first  carefully  reconnoitred  us,  slowly  and  re- 
luctantly admitted  us  into  her  wretched  hovel. 

•  Compare  the  relic  of  S.  Januarius  at  Naplei. 


S84  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  '  Where  are  all  the  people  of  the  town,'  we  inquired. 
"  *  Dead,'  was  the  brief  reply." 

Rome  in  the  Nmeteenth  Century. 

An  inscription  tells  that  the  modern  name  of  Pratica  was 
given  at  the  cessation  of  a  pestilence,  when  the  inhabitants 
were  again  admitted  to  communication  {pratica)  with  the 
neighbouring  towns.  Other  inscriptions,  speaking  of  "  Lauren- 
tes  Lavinates,"  refer  to  a  union  which  the  inhabitants  made 
with  the  people  of  Laurentum,  after  they  had  received  a 
fresh  colony  in  the  time  of  Trajan. 

The  best  way  of  reaching  Pratica  from  Rome  is  by  a  road 
which  branches  oif  to  the  left  from,  the  Via  Ostiensis  beyond 
S.  Paolo,  and,  ascending  the  hills,  leaves  the  Tre  Fon- 
tane  on  the  left,  and  crossing  another  hill  to  the  Ponte  del 
Butero  passes  the  valley  of  Velerano,  and  proceeds  by  Tor 
di  Sasso,  Schizzanello,  and  Monte  Migliore  to  Solfatara. 

A  beautiful  forest  road  of  five  miles  leads  from  Pratica  to 
Tor  FaternOj  a  lonely  tower,  joining  a  farm-house  half  a  mile 
from  the  coast,  which  is  usually  regarded  as  marking  the  site 
of  the  famous  Laurentum,  though  Nibby  (followed  by 
Murray's  Handbook)  places  it  at  Capo  Cotto,  three  miles 
distant,  and  inland,  in  contradiction  of  Pliny  and  Pomponius 
Mela,  who  describe  it  as  near  the  coast.  There  are  no  ruins 
at  Capo-Cotto,  those  described  by  Murray  being  entirely 
fictitious,  but  plenty  at  Tor  Paterno,  though  they  are  all  of 
imperial  date.  Near  Tor  Paterno,  also,  are  still  remains  of  the 
marsh  spoken  of  by  Virgil : — 

**  Atque  hinc  vasta  palus,  hinc  ardua  moenia  cingunt." 

^n.  xii.  745. 

and  whose  frogs  are  celebrated  by  Martial : — 


TOR  PATERNO.  285 

*•  An  Laurentino  turpes  in  littore  ranas, 
Et  satius  tenues  ducere  credis  acos  ?  " 

Ep.  X.  37. 

The  Via  Laurentina,  which  leaves  the  Via  Ostiensis  to  the 
left  about  three  miles  from  the  gates  of  Rome,  leads  almost 
direct  to  Tor  Paterno,  and  may  be  traced  in  many  places  by 
its  ancient  pavement. 

Laurentum  was  the  ancient  capital  of  King  Latinus, 
and  according  to  the  legend  was  his  residence  when 
^^neas  and  his  Trojan  colony  landed  on  this  shore,  though 
upon  the  death  of  Latinus  the  seat  of  government  was  trans- 
ferred .first  to  Lavinium  and  then  to  Alba.  Laurentum  was 
never  afterwards  a  place  of  much  importance,  though,  because 
it  was  the  only  I^atin  city  which  took  no  part  against  Rome 
in  the  great  war  of  b.  c.  340,  the  treaty  which  had  previously 
existed  with  them  was  "  renewed  always  from  year  to  year 
on  the  loth  day  of  the  Feriae  Latinae."*  But  Lucan  speaks 
of  Laurentum  as  among  the  deserted  cities — "  vacuas  urbes  " 
— in  his  time. 

For  the  seven  miles  which  separate  Tor  Paterno  from 
Castel  Fusano,  we  wander  through  the  depths  of  the  great 
forest  of  the  Silva  Laurentina,  which  still  covers  the  coast  here 
as  at  the  time  when  the  Trojans  landed  and  made  a  raid 
upon  its  timber  : — 

•*  Bis  senos  pcpigere  dies,  et,  pace  sequestra, 
Per  sylvas  Teucri  mixtique  impune  Latini, 
Erravere  jugis.     Ferro  sonat  icta  bipenni 
Fraxinus  ;  evertunt  actas  ad  sidera  pinus  ; 
Robora  nee  cuneis  et  olentem  scindere  cedrum, 
Nee  plaustris  cessant  vectare  gementibus  ornos." 

.Eh.  XL.  133. 

•  Livy,  viii.  2. 


286  DA  YS  NEAP  POME. 

Amid  the  huge  stone  pines  grow  gigantic  ilexes  and  bay- 
trees,  descendants  of  the  "  laurels "  which,  says  Aurelius 
Victor,  gave  its  name  to  Laurentum,  and  whose  scent  was 
considered  so  salubrious  that  the  Emperor  Commodus  was 
advised  to  retire  to  a  villa  in  the  wood  during  a  pestilence  at 
Rome.*  Here  Varro  says  that  the  orator  Hortensius  had  a 
villa,  and  a  park  full  of  wild  boars,  deer,  and  other  game ;  f 
and  near  the  shore,  where  remains  of  buildings  may  be 
discovered  here  and  there,  was  the  favourite  villa  of  the 
younger  Pliny4  Still,  as  in  ancient  times,  the  forest  is 
beloved  by  sportsmen,  and  famous  for  its  wild  boars. 

"Ac  velut  ille  canum  morsu  de  montibus  altis 
Actus  aper,  multos  Vesulus  quern  pinifer  annos 
Defendit,  multosve  palus  Laurentia,  silva 
Pastus  arundinea,  postquam  inter  retia  ventum  est, 
Substitit,  infremuitque  ferox,  et  inhorruit  armos  ; 
Nee  cuiquam  irasci  propiusve  accedere  virtus  ; 
Sed  jaculis  tutisque  procul  clamoribus  instant : 
Ille  autem  impavidus  partes  cunctatur  in  omnes, 
Dentibus  infrendens,  et  tergo  decutit  hastas. " 

yEn.  X.  707. 

Here  is  still  the  thick  pathless  wood  in  which  Virgil  describes 
the  tragic  fate  of  the  friends  Nisus  and  Euryalus,  the  forest 
which : — 

"late  dumis  atque  ilice  nigri 
Horrida,  quam  densi  complerant  undique  sentes  ; 
Rara  per  occultos  lucebat  semita  calles. " 

.En.  ix.  381. 

The  raost  beautiful  of  forest-tracks  leads  from  Tor  Paterno 
to  Porcigliano,  passing  at  intervals  the  remains  of  an  aqueduct 
which  probably  led  to  the  villa  of  Commodus,  and  frequently 

•  Herodian,  i.  12.  t  Varro,  R.  R.  iii.  13.  %  Pliny,  Ep.  ii.  I7. 


PORCIGLIANO.  287 

following  the  ancient  Via  Lawmtina^  of  which  some  of  the 
pavement  remains. 

At  Forcigliano  or  Castel  Porciano  is  a  castle  which  lately 
belonged  to  the  Duca  di  Magliano,  but  has  been  bought  by 
Victor  Emmanuel.  Ca?npo  Bufalaro^  near  this,  is  supposed 
to  mark  the  site  of  the  station  "  Ad  Helephantas."  From 
Porcigliano  two  roads  lead  to  Rome,  falling  into  the  Via 
Ostiensis,  one  by  Decimo,  the  other  by  the  Osteria  di  Mala 
Fede. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE  DESCENT  OF  THE  TIBER— PORTO  AND 

FIUMICINO. 

(A  steamer  leaves  the  Ripa  Grande  every  morning,  and  reaches  Fiumi- 
cino  in  two  hours  :  it  leaves  Fiumicino  again  at  3  p.  M. ,  and  the  return 
journey  is  very  long  and  tedious.  It  is  a  drive  of  about  2^  hours  from 
Rome  to  Fiumicino,  and  a  carriage  with  two  horses  for  the  day  ought 
not  to  cost  more  than  20  francs. ) 

THE  road  to  Porto,  after  leaving  the  Porta  Portese, 
passes  for  some  distance  through  a  hilly  district,  far 
more  wooded  and  cultivated  than  is  usual  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Rome.  The  only  point  calling  for  attention  is 
Magliana,  seven  miles  from  Rome,  which  is  seen  near  the 
Tiber  on  the  left  of  the  road. 

Those  who  wish  to  make  a  more  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  Tiber  itself  should  take  the  steamer  to  Fiumicino. 
The  descent  is  flat  and  ugly,  but  it  introduces  one  to  a 
curious  and  new  phase  of  country,  and  one  which  is  filled 
with  classical  associations.  Though  melancholy  and  mono- 
tonous, this  excursion  is  not  one  to  be  omitted. 

The  Tiber  (Tevere)  rises  in  the  Apennines  near  Citta  di 
Castello,  and  has  a  winding  course  of  about  150  miles  be- 
fore reaching  Rome,  forming  in  ancient  times  the  eastern 
boundary  of  Etruria. 


THE  TIBER.  289 


*•  It  receives  numerous  confluents  or  tributaries,  of  which  the 
important  are — the  Tinea,  an  inconsiderable  stream  which  joins  it  from 
the  E.,  a  little  below  Perusia,  bringing  with  it  the  waters  of  the  more 
celebrated  Clitumnus ;  the  Clanis,  which  falls  into  it  from  the  right 
bank,  descending  from  the  marsshy  tract  near  Clusium  ;  the  Nar,  a  much 
more  considerable  stream,  which  is  joined  by  the  Velinus  a  few  miles 
above  Interamna,  and  discharges  their  combined  waters  into  the  Tiber, 
a  few  miles  above  Oriculum  ;  and  the  Anio,  which  falls  into  the  Tiber 
at  Antemnae,  three  miles  above  Rome.  These  are  the  only  affluents  of 
the  Tiber  of  any  geographical  importance,  but  among  its  minor  tribu- 
taries, the  Allia  on  its  left  bank,  a  few  miles  above  the  Anio,  and  the 
Cremera  on  the  right,  are  names  of  historical  celebrity,  though  very 
trifling  streams,  the  identification  of  which  is  by  no  means  certain.  Two 
other  streams  of  less  note,  which  descend  from  the  land  of  the  Sabines 
and  fall  into  the  Tiber  between  Oriculum  and  Eretum,  are  the  Hiraela 
(Aia)  and  the  Farfarus  (Farfa)." — Smith's  Did.  of  Greek  and  Roman 
Geography. 

There  was  a  Roman  tradition  that  the  original  name  of  the 
Tiber  was  Albula,  and  that  it  was  changed  because  Tiberinus, 
one  of  the  fabulous  kings  of  Alba,  was  drowned  in  its  waters. 
Hence  the  Latin  poets  frequently  call  it  Xlbula. 

....  "amisit  rerum  vetus  Albula  nomen." 

Virgil^  ^n.  viii.  332. 

The  name  Albula  was  applied  to  all  sulphureous  waters, 
but  it  does  not  apply  to  the  Tiber,  which  is  yellow,  and  is 
so  called  by  Virgil  in  other  places — 

•*  Hunc  inter  fluvio  Tiberinus  amceno, 
Vorticibus  rapidis,  et  multa  flavus  arena, 
In  mare  prorumpit." 


"  suo  cum  gurgite  flavo." 

and  by  Horace  :- 

"Vidimus  flavum  Tiberim. 

VOL.    II. 


jEh.  vii.  30. 
^n.  ix.  816. 


Car.  ;i.  13. 
19 


290  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

"  Cur  timet  flavum  Tiberim  tangere." 

I  Car.  viii.  8. 

"Flavus  quam  Tiberis  lavit."  Il  Car.  iii.  i8. 

Virgil  at  one  time  flatters  it  as  blue  : — 

"  Coeruleus  Thybris  coelo  gratissimus  amnis." 

^n.  viii.  64. 

The  river-god  or  tutelary  divinity  of  the  Tiber  was  in- 
voked by  the  augurs  under  the  name  of  Tiberinus. 

The  distance  between  Rome  and  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber, 
27  miles,  was  always  navigable  in  imperial  times  for  the 
largest  rowing  vessel  and  ships  of  war ;  but  large  merchant 
vessels  discharged  their  cargoes  at  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
and  sent  them  to  Rome  in  barges. 

After  we  emerge  in  the  steamer  from  the  walls  of  Rome, 
close  to  the  Porta  Portese  on  the  right  and  passing  on  the 
left  the  Marmorata  beneath  the  declivity  of  the  Aventine, 
we  pass  under  the  Civita  Vecchia  railway.  Before  reach- 
ing S.  Paolo,  the  Tiber  receives,  on  the  left,  the  Almo, 
the  "  cursu  brevissimus  Almo  "  of  Ovid,  at  the  spot  where 
the  famous  statue  of  Cybele  was  landed,  when  it  was  brought 
from  Pessinus  in  b.  c.  204.  The  stream,  a  mere  brooklet,  is 
now  generally  called  Aquataccia. 

After  leaving  the  ugly  mass  of  buildings  enclosing  the  grand 
basilica  of  San  Paolo  to  the  left,  the  Tiber  receives  (left)  the 
stream  of  the  Acque  Salvie,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the 
Petronia,  described  by  Festus  as  formed  by  the  Fons  Cati. 

A  little  further,  also  on  the  left,  a  brook  flows  into  the 
Tiber  which  has  its  source  at  the  famous  Aqua  Ferentijia  in 
the  Alban  HLls. 

On  the  right  is  Magliana,  in  a  situation  so  dismal  that 
one  wonders  how  it  could  possibly  have  been  the  favourite 


MAGUANA.     .  291 

palace  of  Leo  X.  It  is  like  the  moated  grange  of  Mariana, 
and  has  crumbling  embattled  walls.  In  its  courtyard  is  a 
beautiful  fountain.  The  rooms  contain  some  decaying 
frescoes.  Several  have  been  removed.  Those  of  the 
Annunciation  and  Visitation,  the  Martyrdom  of  S.  Felicitas, 
and  God  the  Father  in  benediction  (a  very  grand  work)  were 
probably  designed  by  Raphael,  but  executed  by  Lo  Spagna. 

•*  Leo  X.  was  at  his  villa  of  Magliana,  when  he  received  intelligence 
that  his  party  had  triumphantly  entered  Milan  ;  he  abandoned  himself 
to  the  exultation  arising  naturally  from  the  successful  completion  of  an 
important  enterprise,  and  looked  cheerfully  at  the  festivities  his  people 
were  preparing  on  the  occasion. 

*•  He  paced  backwards  and  forwards  till  deep  in  the  night,  between  the 
window  and  a  blazing  hearth — it  was  in  the  month  of  November. 
Somewhat  exhausted,  but  still  in  high  spirits,  he  arrived  in  Rome,  and 
the  rejoicings  there  celebrated  for  his  triumph  were  not  yet  concluded, 
when  he  was  attacked  by  a  mortal  disease.  *  Pray  for  me, '  he  said  to 
his  servants,  'that  I  may  yet  make  you  all  happy.'  We  see  that  he 
loved  life  ;  but  his  hour  was  come,  he  had  not  time  to  receive  the  viati- 
cum nor  extreme  unction.  So  suddenly,  so  prematurely,  and  surrounded 
by  hopes  so  bright — he  died — *  as  the  poppy  fadeth.' 

"  The  Roman  populace  could  not  forgive  their  pontiff  for  dying  without 
the  sacraments — for  having  spent  so  much  money  and  yet  leaving  large 
debts.  They  pursued  his  corpse  to  its  grave  with  insult  and  reproach. 
'  Thou  hast  crept  in  like  a  fox,'  they  exclaimed  ;  '  like  a  lion  hast  thou 
ruled  us,  and  like  a  dog  hast  thou  died,' " — Ranke  s  Hist,  of  the  Popes. 

The  Tiber  now  winds  sluggishly  through  a  flat  desert  over- 
grown with  thistles  and  asphodel,  porazzi  the  Italians  call 
them,  on  account  of  their  abominable  smell.  On  the  left, 
near  Dragonceilo,  where  Nibby  imagines  the  original  mouth 
of  the  Tiber  to  have  been,  begin  the  chain  of  low  hills  called 
Monte  di  Decima,  which  extend  in  a  slanting  direction  to  the 
sea  near  Porto  d'Anzio,  and  which  he  believes  to  have  been 
once  the  coast-line  of  Latium.  On  the  right  is  an  open 
wilderness,  where  great  herds  of  buffaloes  graze  undisturbed. 


292  DA  VS  NEAR  ROME. 

It  is  the  country  where  the  peasant-sufferings  of  the  summer 
are  described  in  the  Improvisatore. 

"The  stranger  from  beyond  the  mountains,  who,  full  of  love  for  art 
and  antiquity,  approaches  the  city  of  the  Tiber  for  the  first  time,  sees  a 
vast  page  of  the  world  in  this  parched-up  desert ;  the  isolated  mounds 
are  all  holy  ciphers,  entire  chapters  of  the  world's  history.  Painters 
sketch  the  solitary  arch  of  a  ruined  aqueduct,  and  the  shepherd  who  sits 
beneath  it  with  his  flock  figures  on  the  paper ;  they  give  the  golden 
thistle  in  the  foreground,  and  people  say  that  it  is  a  beautiful  picture. 
With  what  an  entirely  different  feeling  my  companion  and  I  regarded 
the  immense  plain  !  The  burnt-up  grass ;  the  unhealthy  summer  air, 
which  always  brings  to  the  dwellers  of  the  Campagna  fevers  and  malig 
nant  sickness,  were  doubtless  the  shadow  side  of  his  passing  observa- 
tions. To  me  there  is  something  novel  in  all ;  I  rejoiced  to  see  the 
beautiful  mountains,  which  in  every  shade  of  violet-colour  inclosed  one 
side  of  the  plain ;  the  wild  buffalo,  and  the  yellow  Tiber,  on  whose 
shore  oxen  with  their  long  horns  went  bending  under  the  yoke,  and 
drawing  the  boat  against  the  stream.  Around  us  we  saw  only  short 
yellow  grass,  and  tall,  half-withered  thistles.  We  passed  a  crucifix, 
which  had  been  raised  as  a  sign  that  some  one  had  been  murdered  there, 
and  near  to  it  hung  a  portion  of  the  murderer's  body,  an  arm  and  a  foot ; 
it  was  frightful  to  me,  and  all  the  more  so  as  it  stood  not  far  from  my 
new  home.  This  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  one  of  the  old  decayed 
tombs,  of  which  so  many  remain  here  from  the  most  ancient  times. 
Most  of  the  shepherds  of  the  Campagna  dwell  in  these,  because  they  find 
in  them  all  that  they  require  for  shelter,  nay,  even  for  comfort.  They 
excavate  one  of  the  vaults,  open  a  few  holes,  lay  on  a  roof  of  reeds,  and 
the  dwelling  is  ready.  Ours  stood  upon  a  height,  and  consisted  of  two 
storeys.  Two  Corinthian  pillars  at  the  narrow  doorway  bore  witness  to 
the  antiquity  of  the  building,  as  well  as  the  three  broad  buttresses  to  its 
after  repairs.  Perhaps  it  had  been  used  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  a  fort ;  a 
hole  in  the  wall  above  the  door  served  as  a  window ;  one  half  of  the 
roof  was  composed  of  a  sort  of  reed  and  of  twigs;  the  other  half  con- 
sisted of  living  bushes,  from  among  which  the  honeysuckle  hung  down 
in  rich  masses  over  the  broken  wall.  The  house  was,  as  has  been 
already  said,  in  the  very  ancient  times,  a  family  burial,  place,  which 
consisted  of  a  large  room,  with  many  small  niches,  side  by  side,  in  two 
rows,  one  above  the  other,  all  covered  over  with  the  most  artistica. 
mosaic.  Now  each  was  put  to  very  different  purposes  ;  the  one  was  a 
store-room,  another  held  pots  and  pans,  and  a  third  was  the  fire-place, 
■where  the  beans  were  cooked. 


THE  OSTIAN  CAMPAGNA.  293 

"  When  rain  began,  it  sometimes  continued  for  a  whole  week,  and  im- 
prisoned us  in  the  narrow  room,  in  which  was  a  half  twilight,  although 
the  door  stood  open  when  the  wind  blew  the  rain  the  other  way.  I  had 
to  rock  the  baby  which  lay  in  the  cradle.  Domenica  spun  with  her 
spindle,  told  me  tales  of  the  robbers  of  the  Campagna,  who,  however, 
did  no  harm ;  sang  pious  songs  to  me,  taught  me  new  prayers,  and  re- 
lated to  me  new  legends  of  saints  which  I  had  not  heard  before. 
Onions  and  bread  were  our  customary  food,  and  I  thought  them  good  ; 
but  I  grew  weary  of  myself  shut  up  in  that  narrow  room ;  and  then 
Domenica  just  outside  the  door  dug  a  little  canal,  a  little  winding  Tiber, 
where  the  yellow  water  flowed  slowly  away.  Little  sticks  and  reeds 
were  my  boats,  which  I  made  to  sail  past  Rome  to  Ostia ;  but,  when 
the  rain  beat  in  too  violently,  the  door  was  obliged  to  be  shut,  and  we 
sate  almost  in  the  dark.  Domenica  spun,  and  I  thought  about  the 
beautiful  pictures  in  the  convent  church  ;  seemed  to  see  Jesus  tossing 
past  me  in  the  boat ;  the  Madonna  on  the  cloud  borne  upwards  by 
angels,  and  the  tombstones  with  the  garlanded  heads. 

"When  the  rainy  season  was  over,  the  heavens  showed  for  whole 
months  their  unchangeable  blue.  I  then  obtained  leave  to  go  out,  but 
not  too  far,  nor  too  near  the  river,  because  the  soft  ground  might  so 
easily  fall  in  with  me,  said  Domenica  ;  many  buffaloes  also  grazed  there, 
which  were  wild  and  dangerous,  but,  nevertheless,  these  had  for  me  a 
peculiar  and  strange  interest.  The  something  demon-like  in  the  look 
of  the  buffalo — the  strange,  red  fire  which  gleamed  in  its  eyeballs,  awoke 
in  me  a  feeling  like  that  which  drives  the  bird  into  the  fangs  of  the 
snake.  Their  wild  running,  swifter  than  the  speed  of  a  horse,  their 
mutual  combats,  where  force  meets  with  force,  attracted  my  whole 
attention. 

"The  sun  burnt  hotter  day  by  day  :  its  beams  were  like  a  sea  of  fire 
which  streamed  over  the  Campagna.  The  stagnant  water  infected  the 
air.  We  could  only  go  out  in  the  morning  and  evening.  I  thought 
about  the  delicious  green  water-melons  which  lay  one  on  another, 
divided  in  halves,  and  showed  the  purple-red  flesh  with  the  black  seeds  : 
my  lips  were  doubly  parched  with  thinking  of  these.  The  sun  burned 
perpendicularly :  my  shadow  seemed  as  if  it  would  vanish  under  my 
feet.  The  buffaloes  lay  like  dead  masses  upon  the  bumt-up  grass,  or, 
excited  to  madness,  flew,  with  the  speed  of  arrows,  round  in  great  circles. 
Thus  my  soul  conceived  an  idea  of  the  traveller's  suffering  in  the  burning 
deserts  of  Africa. 

"  During  two  months  we  lay  there  like  a  wreck  in  the  world's  sea.  Not 
a  single  living  creature  visited  us.  All  business  was  done  in  the  night, 
or  else  in  the  early  hours  of  morning.     The  unhealthy  atmosphere  and 


294  ^A  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  scorching  heat  excited  fever-fire  in  my  blood  :  not  a  single  drop  of 
anything  cold  could  be  had  for  refreshment ;  every  marsh  was  dried  up  ; 
warm,  yellow  water  flowed  sleepily  in  the  bed  of  the  Tiber ;  the  juice 
of  the  melon  was  warm ;  even  wine,  although  it  lay  hidden  among 
stones  and  rubbish,  tasted  sour  and  half-boiled,  and  not  a  cloud,  not  a 
single  cloud,  was  to  be  seen  on  the  horizon, — day  and  night  always  the 
everlasting,  never-changing  blue.  Every  evening  and  morning  we 
prayed  for  rain,  or  else  a  fresh  breeze ;  every  evening  and  morning 
Domenica  looked  to  the  mountains  to  see  if  no  cloud  raised  itself,  but 
night  alone  brought  shade — the  sultry  shade  of  night ;  the  sirocco  alone 
blew  through  the  hot  atmosphere  for  two  long,  long  months. 

"At  the  sun's  rise  and  setting  alone  was  there  a  breath  of  fresh  air; 
but  a  dulness,  a  death-like  lethargy,  produced  by  the  heat,  and  the 
frightful  weariness  which  it  occasioned,  oppressed  my  whole  being. 
Flies  and  all  kind  of  tormenting  insects,  which  seemed  destroyed  by  the 
heat,  awoke  at  the  first  breath  of  air  to  redoubled  life.  They  fell  upon 
us  in  myriads  with  their  poison-stings  :  the  buffaloes  often  looked  as  if 
they  were  covered  over  with  this  buzzing  swarm,  which  beset  them  as  if 
they  were  carrion,  until,  tormented  to  madness,  they  betook  themselves 
to  the  Tiber,  and  rolled  themselves  in  the  yellow  water.  The  Roman, 
who  in  the  hot  summer  days  groans  in  the  almost  expiring  streets,  and 
crawls  along  by  the  house-sides,  as  if  he  would  drink  up  the  shadow 
which  is  cast  down  from  the  walls,  has  still  no  idea  of  the  sufferings  in 
the  Campagna,  where  every  breath  which  he  draws  is  sulphurous, 
poisonous  fire  ;  where  insects  and  crawling  things,  like  demons,  torment 
him  who  is  condemned  to  live  in  this  sea  of  flame." — Hans  Christian 
Andersen. 

This  is  perhaps  the  best  word-picture  of  peasant 
life  during  a  Campagna  summer.  It  is  a  life  of  absolute 
solitude,  so  thin  is  the  population,  so  widely  scattered  the 
huts  of  the  peasantry.  Yet  the  sdenes  amid  which  they  live, 
and  the  picturesqueness  of  that  part  of  religion  which  forms 
their  sole  idea  of  literature  and  art,  make  their  life  poetical 
in  spite  of  all  its  misery,  and  the  Italian  peasant  has  a  keen 
perception  of  the  beauties  of  Nature,  which  would  be  quite 
incomprehensible  to  an  English  agriculturalist.  This  is  seen 
in  nothing  so  much  as  in  the  songs,  which  are  for  ever  on 


THE  OSTIAN  CAMPAGNA.  295 

the  lips  of  the  people  as  they  work.     Here  is  a  specimen 
given  in  the  Pilgrimage  of  the  Tiber. 

'*  La  prima  volta  che  m'  innamorai 
Piantai  lo  dolce  persico  alia  vigna, 
E  poi  gli  dissi,  Persico  benigno, 
S'  amor  mi  lassa,  ti  possi  seccare  ! 

A  capo  air  anno  ritomai  alia  vigna ; 
Trovai  lo  dolce  persico  seccato  ; 
Mi  butto  in  terra  e  tutta  scapiglio  : 
Questo  e  segno  ch'  amore  m'  ha  lassato. 

Albero  che  I'avevo  tanto  a  caro, 
E  t'  innacquavo  co  li  miei  sudori, 
Si  son  seccate  le  cime  e  le  rame 
1  frutti  han  perso  lo  dolce  sapore. 

Morte  vieni  da  me  quando  ti  pare, 
Giacche  il  mio  bene  ha  mutato  pensare. 

When  first  the  sweet  pleasure  of  loving  I  knew, 

I  planted  a  peach  in  my  vineyard  one  day, 
And  prayed,  if  my  loved  one  should  e'er  prove  untrue, 

My  beautiful  peach-tree  might  wither  away. 

In  the  spring  I  returned  to  my  vineyard,  and  found 
My  peach-tree  was  drooping,  all  faded  and  dried  ; 

Then  weeping,  I  threw  myself  down  on  the  ground  ; 
For  this  is  a  sign  she  is  faithless,  I  cried. 

My  beautiful  peach,  that  to  me  was  so  dear. 
So  anxiously  tended  and  nourished  with  pain. 

Its  branches  are  withered,  its  leaves  are  g^own  sere, 
Iti  fruits  their  sweet  savour  no  longer  retain. 

Come,  Death,  when  thou  wilt ;  all  my  pleasures  are  o'er, 
Since  she  who  once  loved  me,  now  loves  me  no  more." 

As  we  approach  the  salt-marshes  of  Ostia 
"Dove  1*  acqua  di  Tevere  s'insala." 

Z)a ;;/<?,  Purg.  II.  loi. 

the  river  bends   considerably  to  the   right,  leaving,  three 
miles  to  the  left,  Ostia,  which  already  in  the  days  of  Strabo 


296  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 

was  called  "  a  city  without  a  port,  on  account  of  the  alluvial 
deposits  continually  brought  down  by  the  Tiber."  Julius 
Caesar  was  the  first  to  form  a  plan  for  a  new  artificial  port,* 
but  it  was  Claudius  who  carried  out  the  work,  and  who, 
finding  it  hopeless  to  attempt  to  cleanse  the  original  port  of 
Ostia  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  constructed  an  entirely  new 
harbour  two  miles  north  of  the  old  one,  opening  upon  the 
sea,  and  protected  by  two  moles,  which  had  an  insulated 
breakwater  between  them,  supporting  a  lighthouse. 

**  Claudius  formed  the  harbour  at  Ostia,  by  carrying  out  circular  piers 
on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  with  a  mole  protecting,  in  deep  water,  the 
entrance  of  the  port.  To  secure  the  foundation  of  this  mole,  he  sunk 
the  vessel  in  which  the  great  obelisk  +  was  brought  from  Egypt,  and  built 
upon  piles  a  very  lofty  tower,  in  imitation  of  the  Pharos  at  Alexandria, 
on  which  lights  were  burnt  to  direct  mariners  in  the  night." — Suetonius^ 
Claud.  XX. 

This  harbour  is  described  by  Juvenal : — 

•'  Tandem  intrat  positas  inclusa  per  sequora  moles, 
Tyrrhenamque  Pharon ;  porrectaque  brachia  rursum 
Quae  pelago  occurrunt  medio,  longeque  relinquunt 
Italiam.     Non  sic  igitur  mirabere  portus 
Quos  natura  dedit." 

Sat.  xii.  75* 

and  by  Valerius  Flaccus  : — 

**  Non  ita  Tyrrhenus  stupet  loniusque  magister 
Qui  portus,  Tiberine,  tuos,  claramque  serena 
Arce  Pharon  princeps  linquens,  nusquam  Ostia,  nusquam 
Ausoniam  videt." 

Argon,  vii.  ^t^. 

In  course  of  years  the  port  of  Claudius  was  also  choked 
up,  and  a  new  harbour  was  begun  in  a.  d.  103,  by  Trajan, 

•  Plutarch,  Cces.  58.  There  is  no  authority  for  saying  it  was  the  plan  of  Ausustu*. 
as  stated  by  Murray,  &c. 
t  Now  in  front  of  S.  Peter's. 


PORTO.  297 

united  with  the  port  of  Claudius  on  the  W.,  and  with  the 
Tiber  by  a  canal,  Fossa  Trajana,  which,  since  the  increasing 
filling  up  of  the  old  bed  of  the  river,  has  become  the  Tiber 
itself,  and  is  now  the  only  branch  which  is  navigable.  The 
port  was  surrounded  by  warehouses.  The  new  harbour 
became  known  as  Portus  Ostiensis,  Portus  Urbis,  or,  more 
simply,  Portus.  It  was  chiefly  used  for  the  importation  of 
corn  for  the  supply  of  the  capital,  which  was  almost  entirely 
dependent  on  foreign  produce  as  its  population  increased. 
Its  importance  was  realized  when  Rome  was  attacked  by 
barbarian  forces,  and  especially  in  a.  d.  409,  when  the  Gothic 
king  Alaric,  by  making  himself  master  of  Portus,  and  so 
cutting  off  the  supplies,  obliged  the  Roman  senate  to  accept 
whatever  terms  he  chose  to  dictate.  Rome  was  in  similar 
distress  under  Belisarius,  when  Vitiges,  in  537,  seized  Portus. 

In  the  loth  century,  the  port  of  Trajan  had  been  so  neg- 
lected and  allowed  to  fill  up,  that  it  had  become  a  mere 
pool,  entirely  separated  from  the  sea,  and  only  connected 
with  the  Tiber  by  a  ditch.  This  drove  trade  for  a  time  into 
the  older  branch  of  the  river,  and  gave  a  passing  importance 
to  mediaeval  Ostia,  where  a  fortress  had  been  built  by 
Gregory  IV.,  in  the  preceding  century.  In  16 12  the  canal 
of  Trajan  was  once  more  cleared  out  by  Paul  V.,  and  con- 
nected vrith  Fiumicino,  and  has  ever  since  been  the  only 
way  by  which  vessels  can  ascend  the  Tiber,  the  other  branch 
having  been  almost  entirely  closed  up  by  sand  near  its 
mouth. 

The  port  of  Trajan,  still  called  //  TrajanOj  is  now  a  bason 
of  still  blue  water,  surrounded  by  low  underwood ;  along  its 
sides  the  quays  and  warehouses  by  which  it  was  once  sur- 
rounded may  still  be  traced.    Near  it,  by  the  road-side  close 


i98  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

to  the  Villa  Torlonia,  is  placed   an   inscription  recording 
the  cutting  of  the  canals  of  Claudius  in  a.  d.  49. 

This  inscription  has  generally  been  understood  to  convey 
that  the  work  of  Claudius  was  due  to  his  anxiety  to  relieve 
the  inundations  of  the  Tiber ;  but  Burn,  in  his  Rome  and  the 
Campagna,  explains  that  the  words  "  operis  portus  caussa  " 
would  show  that  the  primary  object  of  the  fossae  was  to 
supply  the  port  with  water,  and  that  the  advantage  of  pre- 
venting inundations  at  Rome  was  only  subordinate. 


Arco  di  Nostra  Siguora,  Porto. 

Through  a  picturesque  gateway,  now  called  Arco  di  Nostra 
Signora,  we  reach  the  little  group  of  buildings  which  is  all 
that  remains  of  the  mediaeval  town  of  Porto,  consisting  of 
the  Bishop's  Palace,  and  the  little  Cathedral  of  Santa  Rufina, 
with  a  10th-century  tower.  The  place  was  ruined  at  a  very 
early  period,  owing  to  the  Saracenic  invasions,  and  though 
many  popes  have  made  attempts  to  recolonize  it,  they  have 
always  failed.  As  early  as  10 19  there  were  no  inhabitants 
save  a  few  guards  in  the  tower  of  Porto,  though  it  was  the 
seat  of  a  bishop,  and  though  it  has  always  continued  to  give 
a  title  to  the  sub-dean  of  the  College  of  Cardinals. 


THE  ISOLA  SACRA,  299 

The  meadows  near  Porto,  which  are  encircled  by  the  two 
branches  of  the  Tiber,  form  the  Isola  Sacra,  a  name  first 
given  to  it  by  Procopius,  who  describes  it : — 

"Turn  deraum  ad  naves  gradior,  qua  fronte  bicorni 
Dividuus  Tiberis  dexteriora  secat. 
LcEvus  inaccessis  fluvius  vitatur  arenis  : 
Hospitis  iEneae  gloria  sola  manet. 

1.  169. 

The  island  is  described  by  Aethicus,  who  wrote  in  the 
fifth  century,  as  most  beautiful  and  fertile — "  Libanus  Almae 
Veneris ; "  now  it  is  in  great  part  overgrown  with  asphodel  and 
mallow.  The  name  of  its  church  with  the  tall  mediaeval  cam- 
panile— S.  Ippolito — ^vill  recall  the  famous  Bishop  of  Porto. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  third  century,  during  the  troubled 
pontificates  of  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus,  when  various  here- 
sies on  minute  points  of  Christian  doctrine  were  agitating 
and  dividing  the  Church,  the  great  defender  of  the  faith,  the 
author  of  The  Refutatio7i  of  all  the  Heresies,  who  did  not 
hesitate  to  resist  and  condemn  one  Pope,  and  actually  ex- 
communicate another,  was  Hippolytus,  Bishop  of  Porto, 
who  was  afterwards  (under  Maximin)  banished  to  Sardinia, 
and  eventually,  according  to  the  poetic  legend  in  Prudentius, 
suffered  martyrdom  in  the  suburbs  of  Rome. 

"The  Roman  Church  comprehended,  besides  its  Bishop,  forty-six 
Presbyters,  and  seven  Deacons,  with  their  subordinate  officers.  Each 
Presbyter  doubtless  presided  over  a  separate  community,  each  with  its 
basilica,  scattered  over  the  wide  circuit  of  the.  city  ;  they  were  the 
primary  Parish  Priests  of  Rome.  But  besides  these  were  suburbican 
Bishops  of  the  adjacent  towns,  Ostia,  Tibur,  Porto,  and  others  (six  or 
seven),  who  did  not  maintain  their  absolute  independence  on  the  metro- 
polis, each  in  the  seclusion  of  their  own  community  ;  they  held  their 
synods  in  Rome,  but  as  yet  with  Greek  equality  rather  than  Roman 
subordination ;  they  were  the  initiatory  College  of  Cardinals  (who  still 


300  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

take  some  of  their  titles  from  these  sees),  but  with  the  Pope  as  one  of 
this  co-equal  college,  rather  than  the  dominant,  certainly  not  the  des- 
potic, head. 

**  Of  all  these  suburban  districts  at  this  time  Portus  was  the  most  con- 
siderable, and  most  likely  to  be  occupied  by  a  distinguished  prelate. 
Portus,  from  the  reign  of  Trajan,  had  superseded  Ostia  as  the  haven  of 
Rome.  It  was  a  commercial  town  of  growing  extent  and  opulence,  at 
which  most  of  the  strangers  from  the  last  who  came  by  sea  landed  or  set 
sail.  Through  Portus,  no  doubt,  most  of  the  foreign  Christians  found  their 
way  to  Rome.  Of  this  city,  Hippolytus  was  the  bishop,  Hippolytus 
who  afterwards  rose  to  the  dignity  of  saint  and  martyr,  and  whose 
statue,  discovered  in  the  Laurentian  cemetery,  now  stands  in  the 
Lateran.  Conclusive  internal  evidence  indicates  Hippolytus  as  the 
author  of  the  Refutation  of  all  Heresies.  If  any  one  might  dare  to 
confront  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  it  was  the  Bishop  of  Portus." — Milmatis 
Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity. 

Here  Dante  makes  the  rendezvous  of  the  happy  souls, 
whom  the  celestial  pilot  is  presently  to  transport  to  Pur- 
gatory. 

**sempre  quivi  si  ricoglie, 
Qual  verso  d'Acheronte  non  si  cala." 

Purg.  ii.  104. 

The  mouth  of  the  Tiber  is  very  different  now  to  that 
which  Virgil  describes  : — 

**  Atque  hie  ^neas  ingentem  ex  gequore  lucum 
Prospicit.     Hunc  inter  fluvio  Tiberinus  amoeno, 
Vorticibus  rapidis,  et  multa  flavus  arena. 
In  mare  prorumpit.     Varias  circumque  supraque 
Assuetse  ripis  volucres  ex  fluminis  alveo 
yEthera  mulcebant  cantu,  lucoque  volabant. 
Flectere  iter  sociis  terraeque  advertere  proras 
Imperat ;  et  lastus  fluvio  succedit  opaco. " 

yEn.  vii.  29. 

"Les  tourbillons  du  fleuve,  le  sable  qui  le  jaunit  caracterisent 
aujourd'hui  I'aspect  du  Tibre  comme  au  siecle  de  Virgile  ;  mais  on  ne 
peut  plus  parler  de  son  cours  gracieiix,  le  bois  a  disparu  et  les  oiseaux 
se  sent  envoles ;  on  ne  voit  aux  embouchures  du  Tibre  qu'une  plaine 


FIUMICINO.  301 

«nn«:  nrbres,  comme  sans  habitants,  ou  des  buffles  paisent  parmi  les 
marecages.  Aux  buffles  pres,  qui  sont  modernes,  ce  lieu  devait  etre 
ainsi  avant  que  le  voisinage  d'Ostie  y'eut  fait  naitre  una  vegetation 
qui  s'en  est  allee  avec  Ostie.  Aujourd'hui  c'est  une  plage  sterile  plus 
semblable  qu'au  temps  de  Virgile  a  ce  qu'elle  etait  au  temps  d'Enee." — 
Ampere,  Hist.  Rome,  i.  193. 

From  Porto,  two  miles  of  road,  or  river,  take  one  to 
FiumicinOy  which  derives  its  name  from  its  situation  on  the 
smaller  branch  of  the  Tiber,  and  which  stands  at  the  present 
mouth  of  the  river.  A  row  of  modern  houses  was  erected 
by  the  late  government,  but  have  Uttle  view  of  the  sea, 
owing  to  the  sand-banks.  The  handsome  castellated  tower, 
with  a  lighthouse  on  the  top,  was  built  by  Clement  XIV.  in 
1773. 


Fiumicino. 

On  the  shore,  half  way  between  Fiumicino  and  Palo,  the 
site  of  the  ancient  Fregellse  is  marked  by  the  tower  and 
larm  of  Maccarese^  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Arrone.  The 
marsh  called  "Stagno  di  Maccarese"  answers  to  the  de- 
scription of  Silius  Italicus. 

.     .     .     "Obsessoe  campo  squalente  Fregelloe." 

viii.  477. 

It  was  hence  that  Tarquinius  Priscus  summoned  Turri 
anus,  a  native  artist,  to  make  a  terra  cotta  statue  of  Jupitei 
for  his  temple  on  the  Capitol.* 

*  Flirty,  xxxr.  45. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

CERVETRI. 

(The  best  way  of  reaching  this  wonderful  place  is  to  go  to  Palo,  on 
the  Civita  Vecchia  line,  by  rail,  and  walk  from  thence.  Sometimes  it  is 
possible  to  obtain  a  hired  gig  at  Palo,  especially  if  one  can  write  before- 
hand to  order  it  from  Cervetri.  Seven  francs  is  the  proper  price,  to 
which  the  vetturini  agree  for  going  and  returning,  but  the  bargain  must 
be  made  before  leaving  Palo.  The  sights  of  Cervetri  must  be  visited  in 
time  to  return  to  Rome  by  the  evening  train,  for  the  only  inn  at  Cervetri 
is  so  utterly  wretched,  it  would  be  scarcely  possible  to  pass  the  night 
there. ) 

pALO  consists  now  of  a  tiny  hamlet,  with  a  seventeenth- 
century  fortress  on  the  sea-coast,  marking  the  site  of 
Alsium,  where  Pompey  had  a  villa,  to  which  he  retired  in  dis- 
gust when  refused  the  dictatorship.  Julius  Caesar  possessed 
a  villa  here,  where  he  landed  on  his  return  from  Africa,  and  to 
which  all  the  nobles  of  Rome  hastened  to  greet  him.  The 
Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  also  had  a  villa  here,  to  which 
several  of  the  epistles  of  Fronto  are  addressed,  who  speaks 
of  the  place  as  "  maritimus  et  voluptarius  locus."  Nothing 
now  remains  of  the  ancient  town  but  some  foundations  of 
the  villas  near  the  sea-shore.  The  origin  of  Alsium  is 
ascribed  by  Silius  Italicus  to  Halaesus  : — 

••  Necnon  Argolico  dilectum  litus  Halseso 
Alsium. " 

viii.  476. 


APPROACH  TO  CERVETRT.  303 

The  Via  Aurelia  passed  through  Alsium. 

Even  from  the  station,  the  white  walls  of  Cervetri  may  be 
discovered  under  the  low-lying  grey  hills  upon  the  right. 
The  distance  by  the  fields  is  about  four  miles,  but  by  the 
high-road  it  is  nearly  six.  The  former  path  turns  off  to  the 
right,  just  after  the  road  has  crossed  the  Vaccina  rivulet,  and 
is  not  difficult  to  find,  but  it  is  impervious  in  times  of  flood, 
as  near  Cervetri  another  brook  has  to  be  crossed  upon 
stepping-stones.  This  is  the  "  Caeretanus  Amnis  "  of  Pliny 
(iii.  15),  which  is  mentioned  by  Virgil : — 

"  Est  ingens  gelidum  lucus  prope  Caeritis  amnem, 
Religione  patrum  late  sacer ;  undique  coUes 
Inclusere  cavi  et  nigra  nemus  abiete  cingunt. 
Silvano  fama  est  veteres  sacrasse  Pelasgos." 

^n.  viii.  597. 

"It  is  the  Caeritis  Amnis  on  whose  banks  Tarcho  and  his  Etruscans 
pitched  their  camps,  and  ^neas  received  from  his  divine  mother  his 
god-wrought  arms,  and  the  prophetic  shield  eloquent  of  the  future  glories 
of  Rome, 

* clypei  non  enarrabile  textum. 

lUic  res  Italas,  Romanorumque  triumphos, 
Fecerat  Ignipotens.* 

The  eye  wanders  up  the  shrub-fringed  stream,  over  bare  undulating 
downs,  the  arva  lata  of  ancient  song,  to  the  hills  swelling  into  peaks 
and  girt  with  a  broad  belt  of  olive  and  ilex.  There  frowned  the  dark 
grove  of  Silvanus,  of  dread  antiquity,  and  there,  on  yon  red  cliffs — the 
'  ancient  heights '  of  Virgil — sat  the  once  opulent  and  powerful  city  of 
Agylla,  the  Caire  of  the  Etruscans,  now  represented,  in  name  and  site 
alone,  by  the  miserable  village  of  Cervetri.  All  this  is  hallowed  ground 
— religione  patrum  lot}  sacer — hallowed,  not  by  the  traditions  of  evanes- 
cent creeds,  nor  even  by  the  hoary  antiquity  of  the  site,  so  much  as  by 
the  homage  the  heart  ever  pays  to  the  undying  creations  of  the  fathers 
of  song.  The  hillocks,  which  rise  here  and  there  on  the  wide  downs, 
are  so  many  sepulchres  of  princes  and  heroes  of  old,  coeval,  it  may  be, 
■with  those  on  the  plains  of  Troy ;  and  if  not,  like  them,  the  standmg 
lecords  of  traditional  events,  at  least  the  mysterious  memorials  of  a  prior 


304  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

age,  which  led  the  poet  to  select  this  spot  as  a  fit  scene  for  his  verse. 
The  large  mound  which  rises  close  to  the  bridge  may  be  the  celsus  collis 
whence  ^neas  gazed  on  the  Etruscan  camp.  No  warlike  sights  or 
sounds  now  disturb  the  rural  quiet  of  the  scene.  Sword  and  spear  are 
exchanged  for  crook  and  ploughshare ;  and  the  only  sound  likely  to 
catch  the  ear  is  the  lowing  of  cattle,  the  baying  of  sheep-dogs,  or  the 
cry  of  the  pecorajo  as  he  marches  at  the  head  of  his  flock,  and  calls  them 
to  follow  him  to  their  fold  or  to  fresh  pastures.  Silvanus,  *  the  god  of 
fields  and  cattle,'  has  still  dominion  in  the  land." — Dennis^  Cities  of 
Etruria. 

The  most  conspicuous  feature  in  distant  views  of  the 
town  is  the  ugly  castle  of  Prince  Ruspoli,  who  is  Prince 
of  Cervetri,  and  to  whom  most  of  the  land  in  this  neighbour- 
hood belongs.  The  people  all  work  in  gangs,  long  lines  of 
men  and  women  in  their  bright  costumes  digging  the  land 
together.  Most  travellers  who  come  upon  them  thus,  will 
be  struck  with  the  rude  songs  with  which  they  accompany 
their  work,  one  often  leading,  and  the  rest  takmg  up  the 
chorus  in  melancholy  cadences. 

Cervetri  was  called  Agylla  by  the  Pelasgi,  and  Caere  by 
the  Etruscans.  Tradition  says  that  the  latter  name  was 
given  to  it  because  when  the  Etruscan  colonists  were  about 
to  besiege  it,  they  hailed  it,  demanding  its  name,  and  a 
soldier  on  the  walls  answered  Xalpt — "  hail ! "  which  they 
afterwards  chose,  upon  its  capture,  for  the  name  of  the  city. 

The  earliest  mention  of  Agylla  is  to  be  found  in  Herodotus 
(i.  1 66).  Its  Tyrrhenian  inhabitants,  having  conquered  the 
Phocaeans  in  battle,  cruelly  stoned  to  death  the  prisoners 
they  brought  back  with  them.  Afterwards  every  living  crea- 
ture who  approached  the  spot  where  this  tragedy  had  been 
enacted  was  seized  with  convulsions  or  paralysis.  The 
oracle  of  Delphi  was  consulted  how  the  wrath  of  the  gods 
might  be  appeased,  and  the  people  of  Caere  were  commanded 


CjERE.  305 

to  celebrate  the  obsequies  of  the  slain,  and  annually  to  hold 
games  in  their  honour,  which,  says  Herodotus,  was  done  up 
to  his  time. 

Virgil  indicates  the  early  importance  of  Agylla,  by  describ- 
ing that  its  ruler  Mezentius  sent  1000  men  to  assist  Turnus 
against  -^neas. 

*'  Haud  procul  hinc  saxo  incolitur  fundata  vetusto 
Urbis  Agyllinoe  sedes  ;  ubi  Lydia  quondam 
Gens,  bello  praeclara,  jugis  insedit  Etruscis. 
Hanc  multos  florentem  annos  rex  deinde  superbo 
Imperio  et  ssevis  tenuit  Mezentius  armis." 

ySw.  viii.  478. 

In  the  time  of  the  Roman  monarchy  Caere  was  one  of  the 
chief  places  in  Etruria,  and  it  became  one  of  the  twelve  cities 
of  the  league.  AVhen  Tarquinius  Superbus  was  expelled  from 
Rome,  Livy  relates  that,  with  his  two  younger  sons,  he  took 
refuge  at  Caere.  In  365,  durmg  the  GauHsh  invasion,  Caere 
became  the  refuge  of  the  vestal  virgins  and  the  Flamen 
Quirinalis,  and  its  people  are  said  to  have  successfully  at- 
tacked the  Gauls  who  were  returning  with  the  spoil  of  Rome, 
and  to  have  taken  it  from  them.  From  the  belief  that  the 
Etruscan  priests  of  Caere  first  instructed  the  Romans  in 
their  mystic  religious  rites  has  been  deduced  the  word  cere- 
mony— "  Caeremonia." 

In  the  early  times  of  the  Empire  the  town  is  described 
by  Strabo  as  having  already  lost  all  signs  of  its  ancient 
splendour,  but  in  the  time  of  Trajan  its  medical  waters  — 
Aquae  Cseritanae,  the  same  which  Livy  mentions  as  flowing 
with  blood — led  to  some  return  of  its  ancient  prosperity. 
From  the  fourth  to  the  eleventh  century  it  possessed  a 
cathedral  and  a  bishop,  but  since  then  it  has  increasingly  de- 
cayed, part  of  the  inhabitants  removing  to  a  town  on  another 
VOL.  II.  20 


3o6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

site — Ceri  Nuova — and  leaving  to  the  old  city  the  name 
of  Caere  Vetas — Cervetri.  As  we  pass  the  ruined  church  of 
"  La  Madonna  dei  Canneti "  in  the  reedy  hollow,  and  ascend 
the  hill  of  Cervetri,  the  walls  built  by  its  Orsini  barons  rise 
picturesquely  along  the  crest  of  the  hill,  constructed  with 
huge  blocks  of  orange-coloured  tufa  taken  from  the  Etruscan 
fortifications.     They  end  in  a  picturesque  mediaeval  gateway. 


Gate  of  Cervetri. 

Here  we  must  enter  the  town  to  engage  the  custode  of 
the  tombs  and  insist  upon  his  accompanying  us,  which, 
with  true  Italian  love  of  ^far  niente^  he  is  not  always  very 
willing  to  do.  Lights  must  also  be  taken.  The  ancient  city, 
which  was  of  oblong  form,  was  nearly  five  miles  in  circuit, 
and  filled  the  promontory,  one  small  corner  of  which  is 
occupied  by  the  mediaeval  town.  Of  all  this  scarcely  any- 
thing, except  a  few  fragments  of  wall  rising  upon  the  tufa 
cliffs,  can  be  discovered;  but  it  is  not  so  with  the  Necropolis. 

One  must  descend  the  path  which  turns  to  the  right  out- 
side the  gateway,  leading  immediately  under  the  walls  over 
some  waste  ^ground  covered  with  the  Virgin's  thistle,  and 
down  a  steep  path  into  the  ravine  of  "Z^  Buffalarecaa^^ 


CERVETRI. 


307 


watered  by  the  stream  called  "  Ruscello  della  Madonna  de' 
Canneti."  Mounting  the  opposite  hill,  we  find  ourselves  on 
high  breezy  downs  overgrown  with  sweet  basil  and  violets, 
and  with  a  delightful  view  towards  the  sea,  as  well  as  to 
the   mediseval   city  rising  on  its  orange  crags,  half-buried 


in  bay  and  ilex.  This  hill-side  is  now  called  La  Ba?i- 
ditaccia — from  being  terra-bandita^  land  set  apart  by  the 
commune,  while  the  final  syllable  of  the  name  is  due  to  its 
unproductive  character — and  this  was  the  Necropolis  of  Caere. 
Many  of  the  tombs  were  hollowed  in  the  cliffs  as  in  Northern 
Etruria,  but  the  largest  and  most  remarkable  are  burrowed 
out  of  the  tufa  beneath  the  upland  turf,  and  are  often  quite 
unmarked  externally,  but  in  other  cases  indicated  by  a 
tumulus. 

Many  of  the  tombs  are  worth  visiting,  but  that  which  is 
far  the  most  striking  is  the  furthest  in  the  line,  the  Grotta 
dci  Bassi-Relievi^  which  is  often  filled  with  water,  and 
diflicult  of   access.      When  we   first    visited   Cervetri,  we 


3o8  £>AYS  NEAR  ROME. 

considered  this  vast  sepulchral  chamber,  adorned  with  huge 
shields  and  other  weapons,  sculptured  in  the  boldest  relief 
out  of  the  solid  rock,  and  casting  long  shadows  in  the  glare 
of  the  torchlight,  one  of  the  most  striking  sights  we  ever 
looked  upon.  But  during  our  last  visit  the  tomb  was 
quite  inaccessible  from  the  water  with  which  it  was  filled. 

The  Grotta  de'  Tarquinj\  the  tomb  of  the  Tarquins,  the 
family  of  the  last  of  the  Roman  kings,  is  most  interesting. 
It  consists  of  two  stories,  the  lower  chamber  is  reached  from 
the  upper,  and  is  covered  with  inscriptions  rudely  cut  and 
painted  in  red  or  black,  in  which  the  name  of  Tarchnas 
occurs  at  least  thirty-five  times. 

The  Grotta  deW  Architettiwa  is  supported  by  two  huge 
fluted  columns.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  shelf,  with  divisions 
all  round  for  two  bodies  in  each,  and  has  an  inner  chamber 
for  the  heads  of  the  family. 

The  Grotta  de'  Sarcophagi  still  contains  three  large  tombs 
of  alabaster — "  a  kind  from  the  Circean  Promontory."  Two 
of  these  support  grand  figures  of  warriors.  One  lies  flat 
upon  his  back  like  a  Templar,  the  other  has  turned  away 
upon  his  side  towards  the  wall.  The  third  sarcophagus 
has  no  figure,  and  is  beautifully  transparent.  It  is  so 
seldom  that  monumental  effigies  can  still  be  seen  in  situ 
in  the  Etruscan  sepulchres,  that  this  tomb  is  most  in- 
teresting, as  well  as  wonderfully  impressive  and  picturesque. 
It  is  often  filled  with  water,  but  it  is  still  possible  to  enter, 
»^y  creeping  round  the  couches  upon  which  the  sarcophagi 
are  laid,  and  the  reflection  of  the  torches  in  the  water  adds 
to  the  effect  of  the  scene. 

The  Grotta  del  Triclinio  is  covered  with  nearly-effaced 
paintings  of  a  very  archaic  character,  banquetting  scenes, 


GROTTA  REGULim-GALASSL  i/y) 

repeated  again  and  again,  and  animals.  This  tomb  takes 
its  name  from  the  benches  of  rock,  to  support  the  dead, 
which  surround  it.  Bas-reliefs  of  a  boar  and  a  panther 
are  sculptured  near  the  entrance.  The  paintings  in  this 
tomb  are  especially  interesting,  because  Pliny  mentions 
ancient  paintings,  believed  to  be  of  earlier  date  than  the 
foundation  of  Rome,  as  existing  in  his  time  at  Caere.* 

These  are  the  most  remarkable  of  the  tombs  on  "  La 
Banditaccia,"  but  there  is  another  tomb  on  the  other  side  of 
the  road,  leading  up  to  Cervetri,  which  should  be  visited, 
not  so  much  for  what  it  is  now,  but  as  the  place  where  the 
most  remarkable  of  the  Etruscan  ornaments  now  in  the 
Vatican  were  discovered.  This  tomb  is  called  the  Grotta 
Regulini- Galas  si  from  its  discoverers,  the  arch-priest  Regu- 
lini  of  Cervetri  and  General  Galassi.  The  opening  to  the 
tomb  is  a  rude  arch  surmounted  by  a  block  of  nenfro,  under 
a  low  bank  in  a  ploughed  field.  This  gives  entrance  to  two 
chambers. 

"In  the  outer  chamber,  at  the  further  end  (when  the  tomb  wac. 
opened),  lay  a  bier  of  bronze,  formed  of  narrow  cross-bars,  with  an 
elevated  place  for  the  head.  The  coi-pse  which  had  lain  on  it  had  long 
since  fj^llen  to  dust.  By  its  side  stood  a  small  four-wheeled  car,  or  tray 
of  bronze,  with  a  basin-like  cavity  in  the  centre.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  bier  lay  some  twenty  or  thirty  little  earthenware  figures,  probably 
the  lares  of  the  deceased.  At  the  head  and  foot  of  the  bier  stood  a 
small  iron  altar  or  tripod.  At  the  foot  lay  also  a  bundle  of  darts,  and  a 
shield  ;  and  several  more  shields  rested  against  the  wall.  All  were  of 
bronze,  and  beautifully  embossed,  but  apparently  for  ornament  alone. 
Nearer  the  door  stood  a  four-wheeled  car,  which,  from  its  size  and  form, 
seemed  to  have  borne  the  bier  to  the  sepulchre.  And  just  within  the 
entrance  stood,  on  iron  tripods,  a  couple  of  cauldrons,  with  a  number  of 
curious  handles  terminating  in  griffons'  heads,  together  with  a  singular 
vessel, — a  pair  of  bell-shaped  vases,  united  by  a  couple  of  spheres. 

•  Pliny,  XXXV.  3,  s.  6, 


3IO  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Besides  these  articles  of  bronze,  there  was  a  series  of  vessels  suspended 
by  bronze  nails  from  each  side  of  the  recess  in  the  roof.  The  tomb  had 
evidently  contained  the  body  of  a  warrior. 

"  The  door  of  the  inner  chamber  was  closed  with  masonry  to  half  its 
height,  and  in  it  stood  two  more  pots  of  bronze,  and  against  each  door- 
post hung  a  vessel  of  pure  silver.  There  were  no  urns  in  this  chamber, 
but  the  vault  was  hung  with  bronze  vessels,  and  others  were  suspended 
on  each  side  of  the  entrance.  Further  in,  stood  two  bronze  cauldrons 
for  perfumes,  as  in  the  outer  chamber:  and  then,  at  the  end  of  the 
tomb,  on  no  couch,  bier,  or  sarcophagus,  not  even  on  a  rude  bench  of 
rock,  but  on  the  bare  ground,  lay — a  corpse  ? — no,  for  it  had  ages  since 
returned  to  dust,  but  a  number  of  gold  ornaments,  whose  position 
showed  most  clearly  that,  when  placed  in  the  tomb,  they  were  upon  a 
human  body.  The  richness,  beauty,  and  abundance  of  these  articles, 
all  of  pure  gold,  were  amazing.  There  were,  a  head-dress  of  singular 
character — a 'large  breastplate,  beautifully  embossed,  such  as  was  worn 
by  Egyptian  priests — a  finely-twisted  chain,  and  a  necklace  of  very  long 
joints — earrings  of  great  length — a  pair  of  massive  bracelets  of  exquisite 
filagree- work — no  less  than  eighteen  fibtila  or  brooches,  sundry  rings, 
and  fragments  of  gold  fringes  and  laminae,  in  such  quantities,  that  there 
seemed  to  have  been  an  entire  garment  of  pure  gold.  Against  the  inner 
wall  lay  two  vessels  of  silver  with  figures  in  relief." — Dennis'  Cities  of 
Etruria. 

*'  Now  comes  the  grand  wonder, — this  had  been  a  woman  !  Whether 
a  warrior  queen  or  a  priestess,  none  can  tell.  Greatly  honoured  and 
sovereign  in  power  she  had  certainly  been,  and  her  name  was  *  Larthia,* 
which,  as  'Lars 'means  'sovereign  or  greatly  exalted  man,' probably 
means  *  sovereign  or  greatly  exalted  woman.'  A  quantity  of  vases  were 
in  the  tomb,  some  of  them  bearing  the  names  of  '  Larthia, '  and  others  of 
'Mi  Larthia.'  It  is  the  opinion  of  Canina  that  this  tomb  was  con- 
structed many  years  before  the  Trojan  war,  and  Troy  fell  in  1187 
before  the  Christian  era.  We  therefore  read  the  language,  and  scan 
the  dress  and  furniture,  and  see  the  very  dust,  of  those  who  were  con- 
temporary with  Jeptha  and  the  older  judges  of  Israel,  long  before 
the  times  of  Saul  and  of  David." — Mrs  Hai7iilton  Gray's  ^'■Sepulchres 
of  Etruria y 

On  the  edge  of  Monte  Abatone,  where  Canina  places 
the  sacred  wood  of  Silvanus  mentioned  by  Virgil,  is  the 
tomb  called  Grotta  Campana,  a  single  chamber,  divided  into 
three  parts  by  Doric  columns.     In  the  first  division  is  a  re- 


TOLFA.  311 

markable  fan-like  ornament  on  the  ceiling.  On  the  walls 
are  reliefs  in  stucco,  and  the  number  of  curious  vases  found 
here  are  preserved  in  their  places. 

Three  miles  east  of  Cervetri  is  Ceri  Nuovo^  a  mediaeval 
town  fortified  by  the  Orsini. 

(In  the  hilly  country  between  Corneto  and  Civita  Vecchia, 
picturesquely  situated  in  a  wild  district,  is  Tolfa,  much 
resorted  to  in  summer  on  account  of  the  mineral  baths  in  its 
neighbourhood  for  the  cure  of  rheumatism,  gout,  and  neu- 
ralgia. A  little  to  the  west  of  this  is  Aluminiera^  with  very 
remunerative  alum-mines.) 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

CORNETO. 

(Cometo  may  easily  be  seen  in  the  day  from  Rome  by  taking  the 
earliest  train  on  the  Leghorn  railway,  and  returning  by  the  latest  :  or 
it  may  be  combined  with  an  excursion  to  Ponte  del  Abbadia,  by  sleep- 
ing at  Montalto,  or  Civita  Vecchia.  The  inn  at  Cometo  is  filthy  and 
most  wretched. 

A  visit  to  the  magnificent  Etruscan  collection  in  the  Vatican  ought 
both  to  precede  and  follow  an  excursion  to  Corneto,  and  will  give  it  a 
double  interest.  In  the  Vatican  are  copies  of  the  most  important  paint- 
ings in  the  Corneto  tombs,  which,  having  been  taken  when  the  originals 
were  less  injured  than  they  are  now,  will  explain  much  that  is  of  necessi*"y 
hastily  and  ill  seen  by  the  flickering  torchlight.  The  careful  study  of 
Deiinis'  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of  Etruria  will  also  add  greatly  to  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  the  places  he  describes,  and  a  reference  to  the 
Sepulchres  of  Etruria  of  Mrs  Hamilton  Gray,  who  gives  coloured  en- 
gravings from  several  of  the  more  remarkable  paintings,  should  not  be 
omitted. 

The  first  care  of  every  one  on  arriving  at  Corneto,  should  be  to 
secure  the  services  of  the  custode  of  the  tombs  on  the  Monterozzi,  who 
will  also  supply  lights,  though  wax  tapers — '*  cerini " — may  with  advan- 
tage be  taken  out  from  Rome.) 

THE  journey  as  far  as  Palo  has  already  been  described. 
Beyond  Palo,  passing  on  the  left  the  square  tower  called 
Torre  Flavia,  we  reach  the  station  of  Sa?ifa  Severa^  with 
a  picturesque  mediaeval  castle  projecting  into  the  sea, 
and  built  upon  a  foundation  of  irregular  polygonal  blocks 
of  masonry,  being  a  remnant  of  the  Pelasgic  walls  which 


CIVITA  VECCHIA.  313 

may  be  traced  for  some  distance  enclosing  a  quadrangular 
space  about  half  a  mile  in  circuit,  and  which  marks  the  sitt 
of  Pyrgi,  the  "  Pyrgi  veteres  "  of  Virgil  {Mn.  x.  184),  and  the 
port  of  Coere,  from  which  it  is  six  miles  distant. 

Pyrgi  was  famous  for  its  temple  of  Eileithyia,*  or  Leu- 
cothea,t  founded  by  the  Pelasgians,  and  so  exceedingly 
wealthy,  that  when  in  b.  c.  384  Dionysius  of  Syracuse  de- 
scended upon  Pyrgi,  he  carried  off  treasure  from  it  to  the 
amount  of  looo  talents.  There  are  no  remains  of  the 
temple  existing.  Strabo  speaks  of  the  town  as  a  small  one, 
and  in  the  time  of  Rutilius  it  was  only  a  large  villa. 

"  Alsia  praelegitur  tellus,  Pyrgique  recedunt ; 
Nunc  villae  grandes,  oppida  parva  prius. " 

Itin.  i.  223. 

We  next  reach  the  station  of  Santa  Marinella^  with  a 
mediaeval  castle  overhanging  the  sea,  and  a  palm-tree  in  its 
garden.  It  is  supposed  to  mark  the  site  of  the  Roman 
station  of  Punicum.  An  ancient  bridge  remains,  by  which 
the  Via  Aurelia  crossed  a  stream.  A  mile  from  hence  in  the 
direction  of  Civita  Vecchia  is  the  Puntone  del  Castrato^  where 
some  Etruscan  tombs,  lined  and  roofed  by  large  slabs  of 
stone,  were  opened  by  the  Duchess  of  Sermoneta  in  1840. 

The  tower  called  Chiaruccia  now  marks  the  site  of  Cas- 
trum  Novum,  another  station  on  the  Via  Aurelia,  and  soon 
after  Civita  Vecchia  comes  in  sight.  This,  the  ancient  Ceo- 
tumcellae,  is  a  place  utterly  devoid  of  interest,  and  in  the 
eyes  of  those  who  arrive  at  Rome  by  sea,  is  only  connected 
with  much  discomfort  and  an  ardent  desire  to  get  away. 
The  origin  of  the  place  was  entirely  due  to  the  construction 
of  its  port  by  Trajan,  of  which  Pliny  has  left  an  account.  J 

♦  strabo,  I.  c.  t  Arist.  1.  c.  %  Ep.  vi.'si. 


314  P^yS  NEAR  ROME. 

**  Ad  Centumcellas  forti  defleximus  Austro  ; 

Tranquilla  puppes  in  statione  sedent. 
Molibus  sequoreum  concluditur  amphitheatrum, 

Angustosque  aditus  insula  facta  tegit ; 
Attollit  geminas  turres,  bifidoque  meatu, 

Faucibus  arctatis  pandit  utrumque  latus. 
Nee  posuisse  satis  laxo  navalia  portu, 

Ne  vaga  vel  tutas  ventilet  aura  rates. 
Interior  medias  sinus  invitatus  in  aedes 

Instabilem  fixis  aera  nescit  aquis." 

Rutiliusy  i.  237. 

"  Whoever  has  approached  the  Eternal  City  from  the  sea  must  admit 
the  fidelity  of  the  above  picture.  As  Civita  Vecchia  was  1400  years 
since,  so  it  is  now.  The  artificial  island,  with  its  twin-towers  at  the 
mouth  of  the  port ;  the  long  moles  stretching  out  to  meet  it ;  the  double 
passage,  narrowed  almost  to  a  closing  of  the  jaws  ;  the  amphitheatre  of 
water  within,  overhung  by  the  houses  of  the  town,  and  sheltered  from 
every  wind — will  be  at  once  recognized.  It  would  seem  to  have  re- 
mained in  statu  quo  ever  since  it  was  built  by  Trajan.  Yet  the  ori- 
ginal town  was  almost  utterly  destroyed  by  the  Saracens  in  the  ninth 
century ;  but  when  rebuilt,  the  disposition  of  the  port  was  preserved, 
by  raising  the  moles,  quay,  and  fortress  on  the  ancient  foundations, 
which  are  still  visible  beneath  them." — Dennis^  Cities  of  Etruria,  ii.  i. 

Monotonous  plains,  covered  with  lentisc,  cork,  and  myrtle, 
separate  Civita  Vecchia  from  Corneto.  Half-way  between 
the  two  the  railway  crosses  the  little  river  Mignone,  anciently 
the  Minio,  mentioned  by  Virgil. 

"  Qui  sunt  Minionis  in  arvis." 

Ai7i.  X.  183. 

At  its  mouth  stands  the  solitary  tower  of  Bertaldo^  mark- 
ing the  site  of  the  Roman  station  Rapinium.  It  is  popu- 
larly called  S.  Agostino  from  the  charming  story  of  the' 
Bishop  of  Hippo  which  is  associated  with  this  spot. 

"While  busied  in  writing  his  Discourse  on  the  Trinity,  S.  Augustine 
wandered  along  the  sea-shore  lost  in  meditation.  Suddenly  he  beheld 
a  child,  who,  having  dug  a  hole  in  the  sand,  appeared  to  be  bringing 


CORNETO.  3^5 

water  from  the  sea  to  fill  it.  Augustine  inquired  what  was  the  obje:t 
of  his  task  ?  He  replied,  that  he  intended  to  empty  into  this  cavity  all 
the  waters  of  the  great  deep.  *  Impossible  ! '  exclaimed  Augustine. 
*  Not  more  impossible,'  replied  the  child,  '  than  for  thee,  O  Augustine  ! 
to  explain  the  mystery  on  which  thou  art  now  meditating." — Jameson  s 
Sacred  Art. 

Soon,  on  the  right,  Corneto — "  the  Queen  of  the  Maremma" 
— crowns  a  long  ridge  of  hill  with  its  towers,  and,  beyond  it, 
rises  another  and  barren  ridge,  which  was  the  .site  of  the 
ancient  Tarquinii. 

A  winding  road  ascends  from  the  station  to  Corneto, 
about  \\  mile  distant.*  As  we  near  the  town  its  battle- 
mented  walls  are  very  picturesque.  Close  to  the  gate  is  the 
magnificent  old  Gothic  palace  of  Cardinal  Vitelleschi,  whose 
splendid  flamboyant  windows  are  so  little  appreciated  by 
the  inhabitants  of  Corneto,  that  it  has  obtained  the  name  of 
//  Palazzaccio — the  great  ugly  palace.  The  court-yard  has 
a  beautiful  cloister,  with  open  galleries  above,  but  it  is 
lamentably  neglected,  and  the  palace  is  now  turned  partly 
into  a  barrack,  and  partly  into  a  most  miserable  inn. 

Cardinal  Vitelleschi,  who  built  this  palace,  is  mentioned 

by  a  contemporary  chronicler  as  "  the  most  valorous  captain 

of  his  time,"  and  was  strangely  rewarded  with  a  Cardinal's 

hat  by  Eugenius  IV.  (1431-47),  for  his  services  as  General 

of  the  Papal  armies.     In  his  honour,  also,  an  equestrian 

statue  was  erected  in  the  Capitol  by  the  Roman  Senate,  with 

the  title  of  Pater  Patriae,  which  had  been  bestowed  upon 

\ugustus ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  because  they  were  his  fellow- 

ownsmen,  the  Roman  citizenship  was  conferred  upon  all  the 

iihabitants  of  Corneto.     After  rising  to  the  highest  point 

jf  prosperity.  Cardinal  Vitelleschi  was  suspected  of  treason 

•  There  are  seldom  any  carriages  at  the  Corneto  Station. 


3i6  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

by  Pope  Eugenius,  and  he  was  arrested  as  he  was  pass- 
ing the  castle  of  S.  Angelo,  but  received  so  many  wounds 
in  attempting  to  defend  himself  and  escape,  that  he  died 
in  the  fortress  after  only  four  days  of  imprisonment,  in 
1440.  His  shield  of  arms,  with  two  heifers  in  allusion  to 
his  name,  still  hangs  over  his  palace  gate,  and  Corneto  still 
possesses  the  great  bells  of  Palestrina,  which  he  carried  off, 
when  he  to.ok  and  totally  destroyed  that  famous  fortress  of 
the  Colonnas. 

A  lane,  behind  the  palace,  leads  to  the  Cathedral,  S.  Maria 
di  Castello — a  good  specimen  of  twelfth-century  architecture. 
It  contains  a  curious  pulpit  of  1209,  with  lions  on  its  stair- 
case, a  beautiful  opus-alexandrinum  pavement,  an  altar  with 
a  baldacchino  inscribed  1060,  and  some  tombs  of  bishops. 
The  baptistery  is  octagonal,  surrounded  with  slabs  of 
different- coloured    marble.      Separated    from    the    church 


Cathedral,  Corneto. 

Stands  its  massive  square  campanile,  shorn  of  one  third  of 
its  original  height,  and  of  the  statues  of  horses  from  Tar- 


CORNETO.  317 

quinii,  which  are  said  once  to  have  stood  on  the  angles  at 
the  summit. 

At  the  opposite  end  of  the  town  is  the  Palazzo  Bruschi, 
containing  many  Etruscan  antiquities,  and  possessing  a 
beautiful  garden  of  cypresses,  decorated  with  Etruscan  vases 
and  tombs,  and  with  a  glorious  view  over  the  sea  and  its 
islands  and  towards  the  promontory  of  Argentara. 

In  one  of  the  convent  churches  in  the  town,  of,  which 
they  had  been  patrons  in  their  lifetime,  the  body  of  Letitia 
Buonaparte — 'Madame  Mbre' — (who  died  at  Rome)  with 
that  of  her  brother.  Cardinal  Fesch,  reposed  for  some  years, 
but  they  are  now  removed  to  Corsica,  to  a  church  which  the 
cardinal  had  founded. 

The  hill  of  Turchina,  separated  from  that  of  Cometo  by  a 
deep  valley  through  which  flows  the  brook  Sarriva,  was  the 
site  of  Tarquinii  itself.  It  derives  its  name  from  Tarchon,  a 
legendary  companion  of  ^neas  in  two  wars  against  Turnus 
and  Mezentius,  who  is  said  to  have  founded  the  city  1200 
B.  c,  and  to  have  been  possessed  of  such  wonderful  wisdom, 
even  from  childhood,  that  he  was  bom  with  a  hoary  head.* 

Silius  Italicus  (viii.  473)  speaks  of  '  superbi  Tarchontis 
domus  ; '  and  Virgil  says  :— 

•*  Ipse  oratores  ad  me  regnique  coronam 
Cum  sceptro  misit,  maiidatque  insignia  Tarchon 
Succedam  castris,  Tyrrhenaque  regna  capessam." 

ALu.  viii.  505. 

Other  authorities  attribute  the  foundation  of  the  city  to 
Tages. 

*'  Here,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Tarquinii,  and  about  the  period 
of  its  foundation,  it  came  to  pass,  said  the  Etruscan  tradition  recorded 

•  Strabo,  v.  219. 


3i8  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

in  the  sacred  books  of  the  nation,  that  as  a  certain  peasant  was  plough- 
ing the  land,  and  chanced  to  make  a  furrow  deeper  than  usual,  up 
sprang  a  wondrous  being,  a  boy  in  appearance,  but  a  patriarch  in  wis- 
dom, Tages  by  name,  the  son  of  a  Genius,  and  grandson  of  Jove.  The 
peasant,  amazed  at  this  apparition,  uttered  a  loud  cry ;  a  crowd 
gathered  round;  and,  'in  a  short  time,'  says  Cicero,  who  relates  the 
story,  '  all  Etruria  was  assembled  on  the  spot. '  The  mysterious  boy 
then  made  known  to  them  the  practice  of  divination  by  the  inspiration 
of  entrails  and  the  flight  of  birds  ;  they  treasured  up  all  he  had  said  or 
sung,  and  committed  it  to  writing ;  and  these  records  formed  the  code 
of  the  sjfcred  Discipline  of  the  Etruscans,  which  regulated  their  entire 
polity,  civil  and  religious,  and  was  by  them  transmitted  to  the  Romans." 
— Dennis'  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of  Etruria. 

*'  Haud  aliter  stupuit,  quam  quum  Tyrrhenus  arator 
Fatalem  glebam  mediis  aspexit  in  arvis, 
Sponte  sua  primum,  nulloque  agitante,  moveri ; 
Sumere  mox  hominis  terraeque  amittere  formam, 
Oraque  Venturis  aperire  recentia  fatis — 
Indigenae  dixere  Tagen  ;  qui  primus  Etruscam 
Edocuit  gentem  casus  aperire  futuros." 

Ovid,  Met.  xv.  558. 

From  its  connection  with  the  legend  of  Tages  and  his 
mystic  rites,  Tarquinii  became  the  reHgious  metropoUs  of 
Etruria,  and  continued  to  be  regarded  as  the  city  especially- 
honoured  by  the  gods. 

In  the  first  century  of  Rome,  Demaratus,  a  rich  Corinthian 
merchant,  migrated  to  Etruria,  owing  to  pohtical  dissensions 
in  his  own  country,  and  settled  at  Tarquinii,  where  he  married 
an  Etruscan  lady,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons.  He  first  taught 
the  Etruscans  alphabetical  writing,  and  he  brought  with  him 
Cleophantusthe  painter,  and  Euchirand  Eugram.mus,  workers 
in  terra-cotta,  who  instructed  the  people  in  their  respective 
arts.  The  younger  son  of  Demaratus,  Lucumo  or  Lucius, 
married  a  noble  Etruscan  lady  named  Tanaquil,  but  never- 
theless found  every  avenue  to  distinction  closed  to  strangers 


THE  MONTEROZZI.  319 

amongst  the  Etruscans.  Thus,  after  he  had  succeeded  to  his 
father's  wealth,  on  his  elder  brother's  death,  his  wife  Tanaquil, 
who  had  the  national  gift  of  reading  the  future,  urged  him  to 
emigrate  to  Rome.  An  augury  confirmed  her  words ;  for 
when  they  reached  the  top  of  the  Janiculan,  an  eagle  swooped 
down,  lifted  the  hat  of  Lucumo  into  the  air,  and,  returning, 
replaced  it  on  his  head.  He  was  welcomed  to  Rome,  re- 
ceived the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship,  changed  his  name 
into  Lucius  Tarquinius,  was  made  guardian  of  the  king's  sons, 
and  was  eventually  himself  raised  to  the  throne  as  Tarquinius 
Priscus. 

The  people  of  Tarquinii  continued  mindful  of  their  con- 
sanguinity to  the  Tarquins,  and  joined  with  the  people  of 
Veii  in  attempting  to  re-instate  the  last  king  when  he  was 
exiled.  After  this  they  were  frequently  at  war  with  Rome, 
success  alternating  pretty  equally  between  the  two  cities.  In 
the  fifth  century  of  Rome,  Tarquinii  fell  completely  under 
its  dominion.  In  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era  it  was  devastated  by  the  Saracens,  and  in  1307 
it  was  entirely  deserted  and  its  buildings  were  utterly  destroyed 
by  the  people  of  Corneto,  then  called  Cortuessa,  when  the 
seat  of  the  bishopric  (founded  in  465)  was  removed,  under 
its  fifth  occupant,  to  the  new  town. 

Behind  and  beyond  Corneto  stretch  the  barren  rugged 
heights  of  the  Montervzzi,  the  Necropolis  of  old  Tarquinii. 
Nothing  is  to  be  seen  above-ground  but  low  mounds 
scattered  over  the  table-land.  The  number  of  tombs  it  con- 
tains- has,  however,  been  computed  at  not  less  than  two  mil- 
lions, and  the  Necropolis  is  considered  to  be  sixteen  miles 
in  extent !  Above  2000  tombs  have  been  opened,  but  only 
a  few  can  now  be  visited.    Of  these,  the  most  remarkable  are  : 


320  'DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  Grotta  Querciola,  so  called  from  its  owner,  sur- 
rounded by  double  frieze  of  frescoes,  representing,  in  the 
upper  series,  a  banquet  with  musicians  and  dancers,  and,  in 
the  lower,  a  boar-hunt  in  a  forest,  with  horses  and  dogs,  and 
men  brandishing  spears  for  the  attack  and  axes  for  cutting 
their  way  through  the  thickets.  The  latter  fresco  has  some- 
times given  the  name  of  "  Grotta  della  Caccia  del  Cignale  " 
to  this  beautiful  tomb,  which  is  much  injured  by  damp.  It 
was  discovered  in  April,  183 1. 

The  Grotta  del  Tridlnio,  or  Z)el  Convito  Funebre,  was  dis- 
covered in  1830.  Five  figures  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
chamber  are  reclining  at  a  banquet,  attended  by  a  boy  with 
a  wine  jug,  while  a  man  is  piping  to  them.  Above,  are  vines, 
with  men  gathering  the  grapes.  Along  the  walls  are  figures, 
male  and  female,  violently  dancing,  in  different  attitudes, 
and  separated  by  trees  and  flowers,  with  birds  on  their 
branches,  and  rabbits  beneath,  perhaps  indicating  that  the 
feast  took  place  alfresco.  On  either  side  of  the  entrance  is 
a  man  on  horse-back,  and,  above  them,  two  panthers.  The 
sloping  sides  of  the  ceiling  are  painted  with  chequers  of 
colour,  and  its  broad  central  beam  is  adorned  with  ivy  and 
lotus  leaves. 

The  Grotta  del  Morto,  opened  1832,  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  of  the  series  of  tombs,  though  one  of  the  smallest. 
In  its  frescoes  an  aged  Etruscan  lies  on  his  death-bed,  while 
his  daughter  is  about  to  give  him  a  last  kiss  :  other  figures 
stand  near  in  attitudes  of  grief  The  word  "  Thanarsela  "  is 
written  above  the  head  of  the  lady,  and  "Thanaueir'  over  that 
of  her  father.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  chamber  naked 
figures  are  dancing  and  drinking  at  a  feast  in  honour  of  the 
dead.     Funeral  wreaths  hang  round  the  walls  of  the  tomb. 


TOMBS  OF  CORNS  TO.  321 

In  this,  as  in  all  the  tombs,  the  flesh  of  the  males  is  painted 
red,  but  that  of  the  women  left  uncoloured.  The  paintings 
here  are  greatly  effaced. 

The  Grotta  di  Pompei^  or  Grotta  del  Tifone,  discovered 
1832,  is  deeper  than  the  others,  and  of  great  size.  The  roof 
is  supported  by  a  great  square  pillar,  like  those  at  Cervetri, 
and  a  triple  tier  of  stone  seats  surrounds  the  chamber.  On 
these  are  a  number  of  stone  sarcophagi,  once  surmounted 
by  recumbent  figures,  of  which  two  only  remain  perfect. 
.  One  of  the  paintings  which  decorate  the  walls,  considered 
by  Dennis  to  be  "  of  much  later  date  and  higher  style  of 
art "  than  those  in  the  other  tombs,  represents  a  miniature 
procession,  in  which  the  dead,  a  youth  and  a  girl,  are  driven 
by  demons  to  Hades.  One  of  them  has  his  claw  upon  the 
shoulder  of  the  youth,  and  brandishes  a  hammer,  the  emblem 
of  supernatural  power,  in  the  other  hand.  The  heads  of 
both  are  twined  with  serpents  : — 


**  Serpentelli  e  ceraste  avean  per  crine 
Onde  le  fiere  tempie  eran  avvinte." 


Dante. 


There  is  something  very  attractive  in  this  picture,  with  its 
lost  story.  Mrs  Hamilton  Gray  thinks  that  Dante  must 
have  seen  it  before  he  wrote  of  Francesca  da  Rimini,  and 
that  in  the  agonized  faces  of  those  who  are  led  away  he 
read : — 

**  Nessun  maggior  dolore 
Che  ricordarsi  del  tempo  felice 
Nella  miseria." 

Inferno  v. 

In  front  of  the  central  pillar  is  a  square  mass  of  rock,  which 
is  supposed  to  have  been  an  altar,  on  which  sacrifices  were 
VOL.  II.  21 


322  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

made  to  the  Manes.  The  front  of  the  pillar  itself  bears  an 
Etruscan  inscription  of  nine  lines,  almost  obliterated.  Three 
sides  of  the  pillar  also  are  painted,  one  with  a  female  figure 
ending  in  foliage,  the  others  with  Typhons. 

"One  of  these  two  figures  is  particularly  fine.  The  attitude  of  the 
body — the  outspread  wings — the  dark  massy  coils  of  the  serpent-limbs 
— the  wild  twisting  of  the  serpent -locks — the  countenance  uplifted  with 
an  expression  of  unutterable  woe,  as  he  supports  the  cornice  with  his 
hands — make  this  figure  imposing,  mysterious,  sublime.  In  conception, 
the  artist  was  the  Michael  Angelo  of  Etruria. " — Dennis. 

The  Grotta  del  Cardinale,  in  a  hollow  which  leads  towards 
the  site  of  the  city,  was  discovered  in  1699,  and  finally 
opened  in  1780  by  Cardinal  Gerampi,  Bishop  of  Corneto. 
This  is  the  largest  of  the  tombs,  being  fifty-four  feet  square, 
with  a  low  flat  ceiling,  divided  by  concentric  squares,  and 
supported  by  four  massy  pillars  of  the  natural  rock. 

The  paintings  in  this  tomb  have  been  greatly  injured  by 
the  shepherds,  who  used  to  light  their  fires  here,  before  it 
was  protected  by  the  Papal  government.  Only  the  outHnes 
can  be  traced,  and  that  with  difficulty.  The  figures  repre- 
sent, for  the  most  part,  a  contest  of  good  and  evil  spirits  for 
the  souls  of  the  departed,  like  those  which  so  long  after  were 
depicted  by  Orcagna  at  Pisa,  and  by  Luca  Signorelli  at 
Orvieto.  In  one  striking  part  of  the  series  a  soul  is  being 
wheeled  in  a  car  before  the  judge  by  good  and  evil  genii, 
who  try  to  draw  diff"erent  ways.     The  evil  genii  are  all  black. 

"There  is  one  scene  from  this  tomb  of  very  remarkable  character, 
delineated  by  Byres,*  which  is  not  now  to  be  verified,  as  it  has  too 
much  perished.  It  represents  two  children,  Cupid  and  Psyche,  the 
latter  with  butterfly- wings,  embracing  each  other ;  with  a  good  genius 
on  one  side,  and  an  evil  one  on  the  other.     They  appear  to  have  the 

*  HypogcEt,  or  the  Sepulchral  Caverns  of  Tarquinia,  by  James  Bvres,  1842. 


TOMBS  OF  CORNETO.  323 

same  symbolical  meaning  as  the  Cupid  and  Psyche  of  the  Greeks,  for 
the  evil  genius  is  drawing  Cupid,  i.  e.  the  bodily  appetites  and  passions, 
towards  the  things  of  this  world,  represented  by  a  tree  and  a  labourer 
^hurrying  along  with  a  huge  stone  on  his  head,  as  if  to  intimate  that  man 
is  born  to  trouble,  and  his  lot  below  is  all  vexation  of  spirit ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand.  Psyche,  or  the  more  exalted  part  of  human  nature,  draws 
him  back,  and  her  persuasions  are  seconded  by  the  good  genius,  who, 
be  it  remarked,  does  not  seize  the  soul,  like  the  antagonist  principle, 
but  tries,  with  outstretched  arms  and  gentle  looks,  to  win  it  to  herself. 
Behind  her  is  a  gate,  through  which  a  soul  is  calmly  passing,  as  if  to 
contrast  the  tranquil  bliss  of  a  future  existence  with  the  labour,  unrest, 
and  turmoil  of  this.  It  is  a  simple  truth,  eloquently  and  forcibly  told. " 
—Dennis. 

These  are  tjie  most  important  of  the  tombs.  The  next 
group  of  sepulchres  is  further  on  across  the  Montarozzi,  two 
miles  from  Cometo. 

The  Grotta  delie  Bighe  is  covered  with  much-injured  but 
once  brilliant  frescoes,  representing  on  the  end  wall  a  ban- 
quet, on  the  side  walls  dances.  The  paintings  are  in  a 
double  frieze,  the  lower  and  larger  of  the  two  having  a  red 
ground.  The  smaller  frieze  is  crowded  with  figures,  and 
among  them  are  several  bigce,  or  two-horse  chariots,  whence 
the  name  given  to  the  tomb.  In  the  pediment  over  the 
door  are  two  leopards  and  two  geese,  in  the  pediment  above 
the  banquet  is  a  large  amphora  with  a  small  naked  figure  on 
either  side,  and,  beyond  these,  seated  figures  crowned  with 
myrtle  and  olive. 

The  Grotta  del  Mare  consists  of  two  small  chambers  mea- 
suring fifteen  feet  by  ten,  and  derives  its  name  from  four 
sea-horses  painted  upon  the  pediment  of  the  outer  chamber. 

The  Grotta  del  Barone,  so  called  from  Baron  Stachelberg, 
by  whom  it  was  discovered  in  1827,  is  decorated  by  a  single 
narrow  frieze,  with  a  border  of  coloured  stripes.  The  sub- 
ject seems  to  be  a  race  and  the  distribution  of  prizes. 


324  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

The  Grotta  Francesca,  discovered  by  Chevalier  Kestner 
in  1833,  is  decorated  with  representations  of  a  funeral  dance, 
with  pipes  and  castanets. 

The  Grotta  delle  Iscrizioni^  discovered  in  1828,  is  unlike 
the  others.  It  is  not  situated  in  flat  table-land,  but  is  en- 
tered from  the  face  of  the  cliff  opposite  the  hill  of  Turchina. 
It  is  sometimes  called  the  "  Grotta  delle  Camere  Finte"  from 
the  false  doors,  which  form  part  of  its  decorations,  one  in 
each  wall.  Between  these  are  different  pictures,  games  and 
dances  being  the  subjects.  Two  figures  seem  to  be  playing 
at  dice,  two  naked  men  are  boxing,  two  others  are  wrestling. 
In  another  compartment  is  a  horse-race,  in  another  a  Bacchic 
dance.  On  the  right  of  the  entrance  is  a  boy  sacrificing  a 
fish  upon  an  altar,  before  which  stands  the  divinity  with  a 
rod  in  his  hand.  Over  his  head  is  written  "  Welthur."  Above 
the  entrance  are  two  panthers,  and  beyond  them,  on  either 
side,  a  recumbent  fawn  and  a  goose.  On  the  opposite 
pediment  are  panthers,  lions,  and  stags. 


"The  inscriptions  in  this  tomb  give  us  some  insight  into  its  history. 
The  first  is  a  long  semicircular  line  of  letters,  and  may  be  translated — 
*  The  Priestess  Caesanna  Matuessa  calls  these  games  in  honour  of  the 
Lar  deceased,  the  glory  of  his  age,  the  protector  of  our  temples  and  our 
commerce.'  Following  this  comes  the  funeral  procession.  First,  the 
newly-elected  Lar  Matuesius,  perhaps  brother  to  the  priestess, — then 
the  families  of  the  Lucumones,  who  are  his  nearest  of  kin,  or  whose 
offices  oblige  them  to  bear  a  part  in  his  funeral  train.  One  individual 
only  is  given  of  each  family,  on  account  of  the  confined  space  in  which 
they  are  represented.  Here  we  see  (identified  by  the  names  inscribed 
on  the  walls)  the  Lenea  and  the  Pompey,  both  very  noble  houses  of 
Tarquinii.  Following  them,  the  Prince  Aruns  Athvinacna  representing 
the  younger  branches  of  the  ruling  house.  Aruns  means  a  cadet  prince. 
After  this  come  the  Laris  Phanuris  or  sacred  mourners  for  the  king,  and 
the  Velthuri  or  presidents  of  the  various  games  and  sacrifices.  The 
races  are  contested  by  the  royal  guard,  here  called  '  Laris  Larthia '  or 


TOMBS  OF  CORNETO.  32$ 

'Guardia  Nobile.'  The  Avrestling  is  between  Nucertetes,  or  Nicotetes, 
and  '  the  Greek '  perliaps  some  celebrated  freedman  or  slave.  The 
boxing  is  between  Anthasi  and  Verenes  the  son  of  Mea.  This  at  least 
is  a  probable  version  of  the  story,  and  satisfied  us  after  a  very  long  and 
careful  study  of  this  tomb.  The  deceased  Lar  himself  is  not  mentioned 
amongst  the  inscriptions,  for  his  name  and  simple  epitaph  would  be 
deeply  engraved  upon  his  ponderous  coffin,  which  lay,  with  his  likeness 
in  full  length  upon  the  lid  of  it,  on  one  side  of  this  painted  chamber." — 
Mrs  Hamilton  Gray. 

*'  To  recapitulate  these  painted  tombs  in  the  order  of  their  antiquity. 
First,  I  should  place  the  Grotta  delle  Iscrizioni.  Second — the  Grotta 
del  Barone,  as  partaking  of  the  same  archaic  character,  yet  with  ad- 
vancement in  certain  of  the  figures.  Third — the  Camera  del  Morto,  as 
being  of  very  similar  style,  yet  with  less  rigidity.  Fourth — Grotta  del 
Triclinio,  which,  though  retaining  certain  archaicisms  in  attitude  and 
design,  shows  much  of  Greek  feeling.  Fifth — Grotta  Francesca,  which, 
though  of  inferior  merit  to  the  last-named  tomb,  shows  more  freedom, 
its  defects  being  rather  the  result  of  carelessness  than  of  incompetence. 
Sixth — Grotta  della  Scrofa  Nera  (almost  impervious  to  visitors),  which, 
though  of  less  pure  Greek  feeling  than  the  Grotta  Triclinio,  betrays 
more  masterly  design,  and  less  of  that  conventionality  which  in  various 
degrees  characterizes  all  the  preceding.  Seventh — Grotta  Querciola,  which 
displays  great  advancement  in  correctness  and  elegance,  and  much  of  the 
spirit  of  Hellenic  art.  Eighth — Grotta  delle  Bighe,  whose  upper  band 
shows  an  improvement  even  upon  the  Querciola.  All  these  must  be 
referred  to  the  time  of  Etruscan  independence,  for  not  one  arrives  at  the 
perfection  of  the  later  painted  vases,  which  date  as  far  back  as  the  fifth 
century  of  Rome.  To  a  subsequent  period  belong — Ninth — the  Grotta 
Cardinale  ;  and,  tenth — the  Grotta  Pompei,  which  can  hardly  be  earlif 
than  the  latter  days  of  the  Roman  Republic. 

"It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  all  the  painted  tombs  now  open  are 
beneath  the  level  surface ;  not  one  has  a  super-incumbent  tumulus, 
though  such  monuments  abound  on  that  site.  More  than  six  hun- 
dred, it  is  said,  are  to  be  counted  on  the  Montarozzi  alone ;  and  they 
may  be  considered  to  have  been  originally  much  more  numerous.  They 
seem  to  have  been  all  circular,  surrounded  at  the  base  with  masonry, 
on  which  the  earth  was  piled  up  into  a  cone,  and  surmounted  probably 
by  a  lion  or  sphinx  in  stone,  or  by  a  cippiis,  inscribed  with  the  name  of 
the  family  beneath.  After  the  lapse  of  so  many  ages,  not  one  retains 
its  original  form,  the  cones  of  earth  having  crumbled  down  into  shape- 
less mounds,  though  several  have  remains  of  masonry  at  their  base. 
One  (popularly  known  as  "  II  Mausoleo  ")  is  nearly  perfect  in  this  re- 


326  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

spect.  It  is  walled  round  with  travertine  blocks,  about  two  feet  in 
length,  neatly  fitted  together,  but  without  cement ;  forming  an  archi- 
tectural decoration  which,  from  its  similarity  to  the  mouldings  of  Nor- 
chia  and  Castel  d'Asso,  attests  its  Etruscan  origin.  It  rises  to  the 
height  of  five  or  six  feet,  and  on  it  rests  a  shapeless  mound,  overgrown 
with  broom  and  lentiscus.  The  entrance  is  by  a  steep  passage,  leading 
down  to  a  doorway  beneath  the  belt  of  masonry.  The  sepulchral 
chamber  is  not  in  this  case  remarkable  ;  but  beneath  a  neighbouring 
tumulus  is  one  of  very  peculiar  character.  The  rock  is  hollowed  into 
the  shape  of  a  Gothic  vault,  but  the  converging  sides,  instead  of  meeting 
in  a  point,  are  suddenly  carried  up  perpendicularly,  and  terminated  by 
a  horizontal  course  of  masonry.  The  form  is  very  primitive,  for  it  is 
precisely  that  of  the  celebrated  Regulini  tomb  at  Cei-vetri,  one  of  the 
most  ancient  sepulchres  of  Etruria,  and  also  bears  much  resemblance  to 
the  Cyclopean  gallery  of  Tiryns  in  Argolis. " — Dennis. 

Beneath  one  of  the  tumuU  of  the  Montarozzi,  the  Gonfa- 
loniere  of  Coraeto,  Signor  Carlo  Avvolta,  opened,  in  1823, 
the  wonderful  virgin  tomb,  whose  discovery  led  to  all  the 
other  excavations  near  Corneto.  He  was  digging  for  stones 
for  road  mending,  when  he  came  upon  a  large  slab  of  nenfro. 
Gazing  through  a  crevice  beneath  it,  he  says  : — 

**  I  saw  a  warrior  stretched  on  a  bed  of  rock,  and  in  a  few  minutes  I 
saw  him  vanish,  as  it  were,  under  my  eyes ;  for,  as  the  atmosphere  en- 
tered the  tomb,  the  armour,  entirely  oxydized,  crumbled  away  into  the 
most  minute  particles  ;  so  that  in  a  short  time  scarcely  a  vestige  of  what 
I  had  seen  was  left  on  the  couch.  .  .  Such  was  my  astonishment,  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  express  the  effect  produced  upon  my  mind  by 
this  sight ;  but  I  may  safely  affirm  that  it  was  the  happiest  moment  of 
my  existence.' 

Turning  down  from  the  Montarozzi  by  the  Grotta  del 
Cardinale  into  the  valley,  the  tourist  should  not  fail  to 
mount  the  opposite  heights  of  Turchina,  or  Piano  di  Civita, 
for,  though  there  are  no  remains  of  the  city  except  a  few 
blocks  of  the  masonry  which  formed  the  foundations  of  its 
walls,  the  view  is  most  beautiful  of  the  orange-coloured  cliffs 


LA  MERCARECCIA.  '      327 

which  are  cro^vned  by  the  towers  of  Corneto,  and,  beyond, 
of  the  wide  expanse  of  blue  sea  with  the  beautiful  headland 
of  Monte  Argentaro,  its  neighbouring  islets  of  Giglio  and 
Giannuti,  and,  in  the  distance,  Elba,  and  even  Monte  Cristo. 


Corneto. 

Some  extraordinary  cavemed  tombs,  once  adorned  with 
bas-reliefs,  which  may  still  be  traced  here  and  there,  exist  at 
the  spot  called  La  Mercareccia,  about  a  mile  from  Corneto, 
reached  by  a  lane  which  turns  off  to  the  left  above  the  road 
to  Civita  Vecchia. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

VOLCI   (PONTE  DEL  ABBADIA). 

(It  is  possible  for  those  who  wish  to  visit  Volci  to  find  rooms  at  Mont- 
alto,  not  in  the  miserable  inn,  but  in  a  private  house.  But  those  who 
are  not  greatly  pressed  for  time  will  do  better  to  return  from  Cometo  to 
sleep  at  Civita  Vecchia,  and  go  by  the  first  morning  train  to  Montalto, 
whence  it  is  a  drive  or  walk  of  five  miles  to  Volci. 

Volci  (Ponte  del  Abbadia)  should  only  be  visited  in  the  winter  or 
early  spring.  It  is  one  of  the  most  fever-stricken  places  in  the  whole 
country.  A  rough  country  cart  is  the  only  conveyance  to  be  obtained 
at  Montalto.) 

SOON  after  leaving  Corneto  the  railway  crosses  the  Httle 
river  Marta,  close  to  the  mouth  of  which,  on  its  northern 
side,  are  some  remains  of  Roman  buildings,  and  a  large  arch 
of  Etruscan  masonry,  with  traces  of  a  quay  and  port,  which 
have  been  identified  by  Dennis*  with  Graviscse,  the  port  of 
Tarquinii.  The  place  is  still  as  fraught  with  fever  as  in 
classical  times,  but  its  pine  trees  have  disappeared. 

*'  Inde  Graviscarum  fastigia  rara  videmus, 
Quas  premit  sestivoe  saepe  paludis  odor. 
Sed  nemorosa  viret  densis  vicinia  lucis, 
Pineaque  extremis  fluctuat  umbra  fretis." 

Rutilius,  Itin.  i.  279. 

A  little  south  of  this  is  the  little  malaria-stricken  port  of 

*  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of  Etruria,  v   393. 


THE  RIVER  FIORA.  329 

San  ClementinOy  whence  corn  and  salt  are  exported  in  large 
quantities.  Here  Gregory  XL,  brought  from  Avignon  by 
the  remonstrances  of  S.  Catherine  of  Siena,  landed  Oct.  18, 
1376,  thus  ending  what  was  termed  "  the  Babylonish  cap- 
tivity of  the  popedom." 

At  Mojitalto  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen.  The  dismal 
town  stands  on  a  hill  around  its  castle  about  i  J  mile  from 
the  station,  and  is  only  remarkable  as  having  given  a  Car- 
dinal's title  to  Sixtus  V.,  whose  father,  Peretto  Peretti,  a  gar- 
dener, had  lived  there  in  the  utmost  poverty,  till  driven  by 
his  debts  to  Fermo,  shortly  before  the  birth  of  the  future 
Pope. 

A  most  desolate  track  leads  from  Montalto  to  Ponte  del 
Abbadia,  exposed  to  every  ^vind,  and,  when  we  visited  it  in 
March,  to  driving  snow  storms.  The  country  is  piteously 
bare,  and  owing  to  the  prevalence  of  malaria  is  entirely  un- 
inhabited. A  tumulus  called  the  Cucumella  is  the  only 
feature  which  breaks  the  bare  outline  of  the  treeless  moors. 

This  dismal  prelude  makes  the  transition  all  the  more 
striking,  when  a  path,  turning  down  a  hollow  to  the  right, 
leads  one  into  the  beautiful  ravine  of  the  sparkling  river 
Flora,  which  forces  its  way  through  a  rocky  chasm  overhung 
with  a  perfect  wealth  of  ilex,  arbutus,  and  bay,  and  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  streams  in  Italy.  The  views  near  the 
bridge  no  one  will  omit,  but  there  is  a  most  lovely  spot  about 
a  mile  lower  down  the  river  called  "  II  Pelago  "  (where  an 
Etruscan  bridge  is  said  once  to  have  existed),  at  which  the 
river  forms  a  deep  rocky  pool  overhung  by  rocks  and  ever- 
greens, which  should  also  be  visited,  and,  if  possible,  be 
painted. 

Hence  an  ill-defined  path  along  the  edge  of  the  cliffs 


330 


DA  YS  NEAR  ROME, 


leads  to  the  Fonte  del  Abbadia,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
glorious  scenes  in  this  land  of  beauty.  A  gigantic  bridge 
spans  the  river  at  a  height  of  ninety-six  feet,  striding  from 
one  great  orange-coloured  cliff  to  another  by  a  single  mighty 
arch,  while  on  the  other  side,  close  to  the  bridge,  rises  a  most 
picturesque  mediaeval  castle  with  a  tall  square  *  tower. 
From  bridge  and  rocks  aHke,  hang  stupendous  masses  of 
stalactites,  often  twenty  feet  in  length,  giving  a  most  weird 
character  to  the  scene,  and  formed  by  many  centuries  of 
dripping  water,  "  charged  with  tartaric  matter."  The  whole 
view  is  filled  with  colour ;  the  smoke  of  the  large  fires 
which  the  guards  at  the  castle  burn  to  keep  off  the  malaria 
adds  to  the  effect,  and  the  utter  desolation  of  the  surround- 
ing country  only  renders  it  more  impressive. 


Ponte  del  Abbadia,  Volci. 

**  The  bridge  is  of  different  dates.  It  has  three  projecting  piers  of 
red  tufo,  much  weather-worn,  which  are  obviously  of  earlier  construction 
than  the  neat  and  harder  nenfro  masonry  which  encases  them.  Both 
are  in  the  same  empledon  style,  like  the  walls  of  Sutri,  Nepi,  and  Fal- 


*  Not  round,  as  in  the  engraving  in  Dennis'  book. 


VOLCL  331 

leri;  and  the  nenfro  portion  is,  in  part,  rusticated.  The  return-facing 
of  the  arch,  however,  is  of  travertine,  and  may  with  certainty  be  re- 
ferred to  that  people,  as  it  possesses  features  in  common  with  bridges  of 
undoubted  Roman  origin — the  Ponte  d'Augusto  at  Narni,  and  the  cele- 
brated Pont  du  Gard.  The  aqueduct,  also  (which  occupied  the  para- 
pet of  the  bridge),  I  take  to  be  Roman,  simply  because  it  passes  over 
arches  of  that  constmction ;  for  the  skill  of  the  Etruscans  in  hydraulics 
is  so  well  attested,  as  to  make  it  highly  probable  that  to  them  were  the 
Romans  indebted  for  that  description  of  structure.  The  tufo  buttresses 
are  very  probably  Etruscan,  for  they  are  evidently  the  piers  of  the  ori- 
ginal bridge.  The  nenfro  and  travertine  portions  are,  in  any  case,  of 
Roman  times,  whatever  be  the  antiquity  of  the  tufo  piers." — Dennis. 

Scarcely  anything  is  known  of  the  history  of  Volci^  beyond 
the  fact  of  the  defeat  and  conquest  of  its  people,  together 
with  those  of  Volsinii,  in  b.  c.  280,  by  the  Roman  Consul 
Titus  Coruncanius.  The  city,  however,  was  not  destroyed 
then,  and  continued  to  exist  in  imperial  times,  as  is  proved 
by  inscriptions  which  have  been  found  there,  including  even 
some  early  Christian  epitaphs.  Now,  however,  scarcely  a 
trace  of  the  ancient  city  remains,  and  only  a  few  fragments 
of  wall,  of  imperial  date,  stand  here  and  there  above-ground 
on  the  table-land  which  it  once  occupied  upon  the  right  bank 
of  the  Flora,  and  which  is  still  known  as  the  "  Pian  di  Voce." 

Comparatively  little  also  is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  famous 
Necropolis  of  Volci,  which  occupied  the  summits  of  the  cliffs 
on  both  sides  of  the  Flora  about  a  mile  below  the  Ponte  del 
Abbadia,  for  though  they  are  absolutely  inexhaustible  in  the 
treasures  they  have  afforded  and  continue  to  afford,  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  soil  are  so  greedy  of  space,  that  a  sepulchre 
is  no  sooner  rifled  of  its  contents,  than  it  is  filled  up  again. 
The  tombs  were  first  discovered  by  the  earth  falling  in  when 
some  men  were  ploughing,  in  1828.  After  that,  Lucien 
Bonaparte,  who  had  bought  the  Principality  of  Canino  on 


332  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

the  advice  of  Pius  VII.,  made  considerable  scavi^  appropri- 
ating the  riches  they  afforded,  and  these  excavations  were 
afterwards  continued  by  his  family. 

The  points  best  worth  visiting  are  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Fiora.  Here  is  the  great  sepulchral  mound  of  La  Ciiciwtella, 
200  feet  in  diameter  and  above  40  feet  high,  once  encircled 
by  a  wall  of  masonry.  It  was  opened  in  1829,  but  has  been 
closed  again.  Two  towers,  one  round  and  the  other  square, 
have  been  disclosed  in  the  upper  part  of  the  mound,  and  it 
is.  supposed  that  there  may  have  been  once  five  of  these 
towers  on  cones,  as  in  the  tomb  of  Aruns  at  Albano. 
Beneath  the  towers  were  found  two  chambers  approached 
by  long  passages,  guarded  by  the  sphinxes  which  are  now  at 
Musignano. 

Very  near  this  is  a  walled  tumulus  called  La  Rotonda;  and 
beyond  it,  near  the  Fiora,  another  smaller  mound,  called  La 
Cucumellettay  which  was  opened  in  1832.  Near  these  an 
enormous  tomb  was  discovered  in  1857,  consisting  of  a 
principal  chamber  with  a  pyramidal  roof,  surrounded  by  a 
series  of  smaller  crypts,  and  approached  by  a  passage  100 
feet  long.  The  principal  tomb  is  surrounded  by  paintings  : 
— Achilles  sacrificing  to  the  Manes  of  Patroclus  :  Ajax  and 
Cassandra  at  the  altar  of  Minerva  :  Masarna  releasing  Cseles 
Vibenna  from  his  bonds,  and  other  subjects,  in  good  preserv- 
ation. A  tomb,  opened  in  1840,  and  reclosed,  called  the 
"  Grotta  d'  Iside,"  was  very  curious,  as  containing  painted 
ostrich-eggs,  vases,  and  okitment  pots  decorated  with  figures 
of  Isis,  all  evidently  of  Egyptian  origin,  as  well  as  the  effigies 
of  the  two  ladies  in  whose  honour  it  was  constructed,  one  a 
miniature  full-length  marble  figure,  the  other  a  bronze  bust. 
On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Fiora,  a  tumulus,  opened  by 


VOLCL  333 

Campanari  in  1835,  contained  the  skeleton  of  a  warrior,  with 
helm  on  his  head,  ring  on  his  finger,  and  a  confused  mass  of 
broken  and  rusted  weapons  at  his  feet.  The  "  Grotta  del 
Sole  e  della  Luna,"  opened  in  1830,  consists  of  eight  cham- 
bers, with  walls  and  ceilings  carved  in  regular  patterns. 

Beyond  that  part  of  the  Necropolis  known  as  La  Polle- 
drara,  the  little  river  Timone  flows  under  a  natural  arch 
called  the  Ponte  Sodo,  a  miniature  of  that  at  Veii. 

•*0n  the  painted  pottery,  found  at  Void,  it  were  needless  to -ex- 
patiate. Every  museum  in  Europe  proclaims  its  beauty,  and,  through 
it,  the  name  of  Volci,  never  much  noised  in  classic  times,  and  well-nigh 
■forgotten  for  two  thousand  years,  has  become  immortal,  and  acquired  a 
wider  renown  than  it  ever  possessed  during  the  period  of  the  cities'  exist- 
ence. Volci  has  none  of  the  tall  black  ware  with  figures  in  relief,  which 
is  peculiar  to  Chiusi  and  its  neighbourhood ;  but  of  painted  vases  there  is 
every  variety — from  the  earliest,  quaintest  efforts,  through  every  grade  in 
excellence,  to  the  highest  triumphs  of  Hellenic  ceramographic  art.  Of 
the  early,  so-called  Doric,  pottery,  little  is  found  at  Volci ;  nor  of  the 
Perfect  style,  which  is  predominant  at  Nola,  is  there  so  great  an  abund- 
ance here ;  the  great  mass  of  Volcian  vases  being  of  the  Attic  style — of 
that  severe  and  archaic  design,  which  is  always  connected  with  black 
figures  on  a  yellow  ground.  The  best  vases  of  Volci,  in  the  chaste 
simplicity  of  their  style,  closely  resemble  those  of  Nola  and  Sicily ;  yet 
there  are  characteristic  shades  of  difference,  in  form  and  design,  which 
can  be  detected  by  a  practised  eye.  On  this  site,  more  than  on  any 
in  Etruria,  have  been  found  those  singular  vases  painted  with  eyes,  so 
common  also  in  Sicily,  the  meaning  of  which  continues  to  perplex 
antiquaries. 

"Although  thousands  on  thousands  of  painted . vases  have  been  re- 
deemed from  oblivion,  this  cemetery  still  yields  a  richer  harvest  than  any 
other  in  Etruria.  No  site  has  been  so  well  worked  by  the  excavator — 
none  has  so  well  repaid  him ;  yet  it  seems  far  from  exhausted.  Nor  is  it 
rich  in  vases  alone.  Bronzes  of  various  descriptions,  mirrors  with 
beautiful  designs,  vessels,  tripods,  candelabra,  weapons — are  proportion- 
ally abundant,  and  maintain  the  same  relative  excellence  to  the  pottery. 
That  exquisite  cista,  or  casket,  now  in  the  Gregorian  Museum,  and 
which  yields  not  in  beauty  to  any  one  of  those  very  rare  relics  of  ancient 
taste  and  genius,  was  found  at  Volci.     No  site  yields  more  superb  and 


334  ^A  yS  NEAR  ROME. 

delicate  articles  in  gold  and  jewellery — as  the  Cabinets  of  the  Vatican 
and  of  Cavaliere  Campana  (now  in  the  Louvre)  can  testify ;  none  more 
numerous  relics  in  bone — spoons,  needles,  dice,  to  wit — or  more  beauti- 
ful specimens  of  variegated  glass." — Dennis. 

A  visit  to  Volci  finds  its  natural  sequel  at  the  Palace  of 
Musignano,  five  miles  distant,  the  property  of  Prince  Tor- 
Ionia,  who  bought  it  in  1854  from  the  Roman  Bonapartes, 
with  whom  it  was  a  favourite  residence.  It  is  an  or- 
dinary villa  built  on  the  site  of  the  Franciscan  Abbey 
("Abbadia")  which  gave  a  name  to  the  bridge  at  Volci. 
The  gate  and  court-yard  are  adorned  with  griffins  and  lions 
from  La  Cucumella,  but  the  collections  of  antiquities  within, 
formed  by  Lucien  Bonaparte  and  his  widow,  has  been  long 
since  dispersed.  The  gardens  and  shrubberies,  which  are 
of  great  extent,  are  now  overgrown  and  neglected.  There  is 
a  lake  with  an  island  planted  with  willows  from  the  grave  at 
S.  Helena. 

The  little  town  of  Canino,  which  gives  a  princely  title  to 
the  descendants  of  Lucien  Bonaparte,  is  about  two  miles 
from  the  villa,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  called  Monte  di  Canino. 
In  the  church  is  a  monument  by  Pampaloni  to  Prince 
Lucien,  who  died  at  Viterbo  and  is  buried  here,  with 
his  second  wife.  The  Monte  de  Canino  is  1380  feet  in 
height,  and,  in  its  lonely  position  and  lime-stone  formation, 
greatly  resembles  Soracte.  It  is  possible  to  proceed  in  a 
carriage  from  Canino  to  Toscanella,  about  nine  miles  distant, 
but  as  it  is  difficult  to  sleep  there,  and  impossible  to  pass 
the  night  in  the  wretched  locanda  of  Canino,  it  will  be 
better  to  return  to  the  inn  at  Civita  Vecchia,  or  to  a  lodg- 
ing at  Corneto,  and  make  the  excursion  from  the  latter  place. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

TOSCANELLA  AND  CENTRAL  ETRURIA 

(Toscanella  is  most  easily  reached,  either  from  Viterbo,  i8  miles  by  a 
good  road ;  or  from  Cometo,  17  miles  distant.  There  is  a  very  humble 
inn,  but  if  possible  the  visitor  should  take  an  introduction  to  some 
private  family  in  the  town.  The  Etruscan  sites  beyond  Toscanella  are 
seldom  visited,  and  can  only  in  some  instances  be  approached  on  horse- 
back or  on  foot.     The  accommodation  is  of  the  humblest  description. ) 


T 


OSCANELLA  is  visible  from  a  great  distance,  on  a 
height  above  the  valley  of  the  Marta. 

"  Vedemo  Toscanela  tanto  anticha 
Quanto  alcun  altra  de  questo  paese." 

Fazio  degli  Uberti. 

Toscanella  was  the  Etruscan  Tascania,  mentioned  by  Pliny 
as  amongst  the  municipal  communities  of  Etruria,  but  other- 
wise unknown  to  history.  Its  early  importance  has  probably 
been  much  exaggerated,  owing  to  the  discovery  of  a  single 
tomb  of  great  magnificence,  which  ought  rather  to  be  considered 
to  attest  the  wealth  and  importance  of  an  individual  family. 
There  are  scarcely  any  traces  of  the  Etruscan  city,  and  only 
small  vestiges  of  reticulated  walling  to  mark  the.  Roman 
settlement  which  followed  it.  The  mediaeval  remains  of 
Toscanella  are  far  more  important.  The  hill  of  San  Pietro^ 
which  is  outside  the  later  to\vn,  was  probably  the  arx  of  the 


336  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

Etruscan  city.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  band  of  square  mediae' 
val  towers,  which  are  double, — "  a  tall,  slender  tower  being 
encased,  with  no  intervening  space,  in  an  outer  shell  of 
masonry."  On  this  height  also  is  the  Cathedral  (S.  Pietro), 
a  most  interesting  building,  partly  of  the  seventh,  partly  of 
the  eleventh  century.  The  wonderfully  rich  central  division 
of  the  fagade  is  covered  in  its  upper  story  with  figures  of 
men,  devils,  and  beasts,  possible  and  impossible,  in  high 
relief  Within,  the  church  is  a  museum  of  pagan  relics,  the 
columns  which  divide  the  nave  from  the  aisles  are  evidently 
Roman,  the  font  rests  on  a  pagan  altar,  and  the  crypt  beneath 
the  high-altar,  safd  to  have  been  a  Roman  bath,  has  twenty- 
eight  ancient  pillars. 

"The  date  of  the  interior  is  known.  It  forms  part  of  a  church  which 
was  built,  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  when  the  bodies  of 
the  saints  Secundiano,  Marcellino,  and  Veriano,  were  discovered  (at 
Celli  in  628)  and  brought  to  Toscanella.  A  splendid  crypt  was,  as 
usual,  prepared  for  their  reception  beneath  the  sanctuary. 

"  The  front  must  have  been  rebuilt  at  much  later  times.  The  style  is 
very  peculiar.  In  the  works  of  the  Lombards  we  find  an  abundance  of 
dragons  and  serpents,  but  we  do  not  find  them  coursing  down  the  front, 
from  the  eaves  to  the  portal,  as  in  the  present  instance.  At  Viterbo, 
however,  which  is  at  the  distance  of  only  a  few  miles  from  Toscanella, 
traces  of  the  same  peculiarity  exist.  The  same  extraordinary  animals, 
though  injured  by  time,  and  half-concealed  by  whitewash,  may  still  be 
perceived  on  the  front  of  the  Church  of  San  Giovanni  in  Zoccoli  in  that 
city.  That  church  is  known  to  have  been  complete  in  1037.  It  may 
therefore  be  safely  assumed  that  the  existing  front  of  San  Pietro  of  Tos- 
canella was  built  in  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh  century. 

*'  The  ruined  building,  which  adjoins  the  church,  is  the  remains  of  the 
episcopal  palace.  The  bishop's  chair,  which  had  been  removed  from 
Santa  Maria  to  San  Pietro  in  the  seventh  century,  was  again  removed  to 
the  church  of  S.  James  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  Toscanella  had 
shrunk  to  its  present  limits." — H.  Gaily  Knight. 

Very  near   S.  Pietro  is  the  still   older  and  exceedingly 


TOSCANELLA.  337 

curious  church  of  Sta.  Maria,vf\iost  front  of  the  tenth  century- 
is  also  decorated  with  monsters.  The  church  ends  in  an 
apse  which  has  a  fresco  of  the  Last  Judgment,  and  over  the 
high-altar  is  a  baldacchino.  The  richly-decorated  pulpit  is 
a  beautiful  work  of  the  13th  century.  Ughelli  {Italia  Sacra) 
mentions  that  the  episcopal  chair  was  removed  from  Sta. 
Maria  to  S.  Pietro  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century, 
which  proves  that  at  least  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventh 
century  this  church  must  have  been  in  existence,  and  it  is 
almost  certain  to  have  been  in  existence  in  the  sixth  century 
also,  as  the  signature  of  a  bishop  of  Toscanella  occurs  in  595. 
The  church  was  reconsecrated  in  1206. 

"We  may  conclude  that  Santa  Maria  was  a  finished  building  at  the 
close  of  the  sixth  century :  and  the  style  of  the  interior  of  the  church 
corresponds  with  that  time.  It  is  a  studious,  and  not  an  unsuccessful, 
imitation  of  the  Roman.  All  the  pillars  have  foliage  capitals,  with  no 
admixture  of  imagery ;  but,  in  the  cornice,  are  seen  a  few  of  the'  sym- 
bolical figures  which,  at  that  period,  began  to  make  their  appearance  in 
churches." — Gaily  Knight. 

,  After  the  churches,  the  chief  attraction  at  Toscanella  is 
the  Etruscan  museum  and  garden  of  the  brothers  Carlo  and 
Secondiano  Campanari,  to  whom  the  excavations  of  Tuscania 
are  due,  and  who  have  largely  contributed  by  the  sale  of 
their  antiquities  to  all  the  important  Etruscan  collections  of 
Europe.  In  the  garden  is  a  facsimile  of  an  Etruscan  tomb, 
opened  by  the  Campanari,  and  inscribed  "  Ecasuthinesl " 
over  the  entrance.  It  contains  the  ten  sarcophagi  found  in 
the  original  tomb.  On  each  lies  the  owner,  half  reclining  as 
if  at  a  banquet,  and  each  seems  to  be  pledging  his  neighbour 
with  the  goblet  in  his  hand.  The  flower-beds  are  fringed  by 
sarcophagi,  with  Etruscans,  male  and  female,  reclining  on  the 
VOL.  II.  22 


338  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

lids,  leaning  upon  their  left  arms,  and  looking  at  the  specta- 
tor, and  most  strange  is  the  effect !  In  the  tomb  called  II 
Calcarello,  opened  by  the  Campanari  in  1839,  no  less  than 
twenty-seven  sarcophagi  were  found,  those  of  the  women 
forming  an  inner  circle,  outside  which  lay  their  husbands. 
All  the  sarcophagi  are  of  nenfro. 

The  tombs  of  Tuscania  are  chiefly  hewn  out  of  the  clihs 
in  the  neighbouring  ravines.  They  have  no  architectural 
decorations.  The  most  remarkable  is  that  called  Grotta 
della  Regina,  half  a  mile  from  the  town,  beneath  the  Madonna 
deir  Olivo.  A  long  passage  opens  upon  a  square  chamber 
supported  by  two  columns,  and  behind  it  winds  a  labyrinthine 
passage,  which  leaves  the  tomb  on  one  side,  and,  after  many 
twists  and  turns,  returns  to  it  on  the  other.  To  visit  this, 
lights  are  necessary. 

Few  travellers  will  penetrate  beyond  Toscanella,  yet,  be- 
yond it,  lie  a  collection  of  Etruscan  sites,  one  at  least  of 
which,  Sovana,  is  well  worth  seeing,  though  it  is  30  miles 
distant. 

Fourteen  miles  north  of  Toscanella  is  Ischia,  an  Etruscan 
site,  with  ravines  full  of  ordinary  tombs.  Two  miles  west  of 
this  is  Farnese,  also  of  Etruscan  origin.  Two  or  three  miles 
further  is  Castro,  where  the  hill-side  is  covered  with  the  ruins 
of  a  flourishing  city,  utterly  destroyed  by  Pope  Innocent  X. 
in  1647,  because  its  bishop  had  been  murdered  by  Famese, 
Lord  of  Castro  !  The  see  was  at  the  same  time  removed  to 
Acquapendente.  Castro  is  a  beautiful  place  with  ravines  over- 
hung with  ilexes,  two  ruined  bridges,  and  tombs  and  colum- 
baria hewn  in  the  cliffs. 

Five  miles  west  of  Ischia  is  Valentano,  looking  down  upon 
the  lake  of  Bolsena,  whence  a  bridle-path  leads  1 2  miles  to 


SOVANA.  339 

FitigiianOf  passing  on  the  way  the  little  Lake  of  Mezzano, 
supposed  to  have  been  the  Lacus  Statoniensis,  mentioned  by 
Pliny  and  Seneca.  Pitigliano  is  a  large  place,  picturesquely 
situated  like  Civita  Castellana  on  a  tongue  of  land,  sur- 
rounded by  ravines.  Close  outside  the  city  gate,  called 
Porta  di  Sotto,  is  a  fine  fragment  of  the  ancient  wall  in  eight 
courses  of  huge  tufa  blocks.  The  neighbouring  ravines  are 
exceedingly  beautiful,  especially  near  the  little  waterfall  called 
"  La  Cascatella."  The  height  called  Poggio  Strozzoni  was 
once  occupied  by  a  castle  of  the  Counts  Orsini,  said  to  have 
been  ruined  after  the  last  count,  in  a  fit  of  jealousy,  flung  his 
wife  into  the  ravine  from  the  bridge  above  the  Cascatella. 
Two  strange  figures  lie  here  hewn  out  of  the  rock.  The 
people  call  them  "Orlando  and  his  wife."  Unfortunately 
they  are  only  of  cinque-cento  origin,  colossal  ornaments  of 
the  Orsini  villa. 

Five  miles  N.  E.  of  Pitigliano  is  Sorano,  also  an  Etruscan 
site,  and  a  most  picturesque  place. 

"In  the  centre  of  the  town  rises  a  precipitous  mass  of  rock,  whose 
summit  commands  one  of  the  most  romantic  scenes  in  this  part  of  Italy. 
The  town  clustering  round  the  base  of  the  height — the  grand  old  feudal 
castle,  with  its  hoary  battlements,  crowning  the  cliffs  behind — the  fearful 
precipices  and  profound  chasms  at  your  feet — and  the  ranges  of  moun- 
tains in  front,  rising  in  grades  of  altitude  and  majesty,  to  the  sublime 
icy  crest  of  Monte  Amiata." — Dennis. 

Only  2\  miles  from  Pitigliano  is  Sovana,  one  of  the  most 
interesting  spots  in  Etruria,  and  possessing  a  greater  variety 
of  sculptured  tombs  than  any  other  place.  The  site  was 
afterwards  occupied  by  the  Roman  colony  of  Suana  men- 
tioned by  Ptolemy  and  Pliny.  The  existing  village  stands  on 
a  tongue  of  land,  ending  on  one  side  in  the  square  tower  of  the 


340  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

cathedral,  for  It  is  still  the  see  of  a  bishop ;  and,  on  the  other, 
in  a  picturesque  mediaeval  castle.  It  was  the  birthplace  of 
Hildebrand — Gregory  VIL,  and  in  1240  sustained  a  siege 
from  Frederick  II. 

Sovana  can  only  be  visited  with  safety  in  the  winter  or 
early  spring  :  it  is  ruined  by  the  malaria. 


"Such  is  the  summer  scourge  of  'ariaccia,*  that  even  the  wretched 
hamlet  to  which  the  city  has  dwindled  is  well-nigh  depopulated,  and 
most  of  its  houses  are  ruined  and  tenantless.  It  may  well  be  called,  as 
Repetti  observes,  'The  city  of  Jeremiah.'  It  is  but  the  skeleton,  though 
a  still  living  skeleton,  of  its  former  greatness.  Pestilence,  year  after 
year,  stalks  through  its  long,  silent  street.  The  visit  of  a  stranger  is  an 
epoch  in  the  annals  of  the  hamlet." — Dennis. 


The  finest  of  the  tombs  at  Sovana  is  that  called  La  Fontana^ 
discovered  by  Mr  Ainsley  in  1843,  till  which  time  Sovana 
was  utterly  unknown  to  Englishmen.  It  is  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  ravine  which  is  reached  by  the  western  gate  of 
the  town.  Above  an  arched  recess,  is  a  Doric  frieze,  and 
then  a  pediment  sculptured  in  bold  relief  with  figures  of  a 
mermaid  and  a  winged  genius.  The  tomb  is  about  1 7  feet 
wide  and  17  high,  the  pediment  occupying  seven  feet.  A 
long  line  of  tombs,  of  Egyptian  character,  occupies  the  face  of 
the  cliff  (Poggio  Prisca)  beyond  La  Fontana,  but  they  are 
almost  concealed  by  the  brushwood.  On  the  opposite  side 
of  the  valley  is  the  Grotta  Fola,  with  a  front  cut  in  the  tufo 
like  the  portico  of  a  temple,  having  once  had  apparently 
four  columns,  of  which  only  one  now  remains.  In  the  same 
cliff  (Poggio  Stanziale)  are  many  more  Egyptian-like  tombs, 
and  some  "  house-tombs  "  with  ribbed  and  ridged  roofs,  one 
of  them  decorated  with  a  colossal  head  on  its  pediment 


SATURNIA.  341 

Sovana  may  be  reached  from  Acquapendente  or  Orbetello 

as  well  as  from  Toscanella.* 

Eight  miles  west  from  Sovana  is  Safurnia,  reached  by  a 
bridle-path  which  fords  the  Flora.  It  occupies  a  striking 
position  above  the  valley  of  the  Albegna,  and  is  surrounded 
by  fortifications  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  present  city 
however  only  covers  a  small  part  of  the  ancient  area,  of 
which  fragments  of  the  walls,  of  polygonal  masonry,  may  still 
be  seen.  Near  the  Porta  Romana,  by  which  the  Via  Clodia 
passed  through  the  town  to  Rome,  is  a  curious  mass  of 
travertine  in 'which  steps  have  been  cut  to  the  top,  where  are 
three  graves  or  sarcophagi  sunk  in  the  level  summit. 

The  Necropolis  of  Saturnia  is  10  miles  distant  from  the 
city,  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Albegna,  at  the  spot  called 
by  the  people  Pian  di  Palma.  The  tombs  here,  for  which 
the  native  appellation  is  not  sepolcfiri  or  grotie,  but  depositi. 
differ  from  all  others  in  Etruria,  being  more  like  the  crom- 
lechs of  Cornwall,  and  are  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  the 
Aborigines,  to  whom  Dionysius  attributes  the  foundation  of 
Saturnia. 

"They  are  quadrangular  chambers,  sunk  a  few  feet  below  the  surface, 
lined  with  rough  slabs  of  rock,  set  upright,  one  on  each  side,  and  roofed 
over  with  two  large  slabs  resting  against  each  other  so  as  to  form  a  rude 
pent-house ;  or  else  with  a  single  one  of  enormous  size,  covering  the 
whole,  and  laid  at  a  slight  inclination,  apparently  for  the  same  purpose 
of  carrying  off  the  rain.  Not  a  chisel  has  touched  these  rugged  masses, 
which  are  just  as  broken  off  from  their  native  rock,  with  their  edges  all 
shapeless  and  irregular ;  and  if  their  faces  are  somewhat  smooth,  it  is 


•  The  Author  has  never  been  able  in  person  to  visit  PItigliano,  Sovana,  or  Saturnia. 
He  is  indebted  entirely  for  his  information  to  the  same  source  from  which  the  ac- 
count in  Murray's  Handbook  is  evidently  copied — Dennises  Cities  and  Cetneteries  of 
Etruria — to  which  all-important  work  he  refers  the  reader  for  details,  if  he  has  any 
idea  of  penetratiug  into  Central  Etruria. 


342  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

owing  to  the  tendency  of  the  travertine  to  split  in  laminar  forms.  They 
are  the  most  rude  and  primitive  structures  conceivable ;  such  as  the 
savage  would  make  on  inhaling  his  first  breath  of  civilization,  or  emerg- 
ing from  his  cave  or  den  in  the  rock.  Their  dimensions  vary  from 
about  sixteen  feet  square  to  half  that  size,  though  few  are  strictly  of  that 
form.  Many  are  divided  into  two  chambers  or  compartments  for  bodies, 
by  an  upright  slab,  on  which  the  cover-stones  rest.  In  most  there  is  a 
passage,  about  three  feet  wide,  and  ten  or  twelve  feet  long,  leading  to 
the  sepulchral  chamber,  and  lined  with  slabs  of  inferior  size  and  thickness 
"  These  tombs  are  sunk  but  little  below  the  surface,  because  each  is  en  • 
closed  in  a  tumulus  j  the  earth  being  piled  around  so  as  to  conceal  all 
but  the  cover-stones,  which  may  have  been  also  originally  buried.  In 
many  instances  the  earth  has  been  removed  or  washed  away,  so  as  to 
leave  the  structure  standing  above  the  surface." — Dennis, 


CHAPTER  XL. 

THE  ETRUSCAN  SHORE. 

(Few,  except  thorough-going  Etruscan  antiquarians,  will  care  to 
examine  the  shore  of  Etruria,  owing  to  the  difficulties  which  beset  such 
an  excursion ;  partly  from  the  risks  of  fever,  partly  from  the  miserable 
accommodation  for  travellers  in  this  part  of  Italy.  There  have  been 
tolerable  inns  at  Orbetello,  Grosseto,  and  Campiglia,  but  they  frequently 
change  hands,  so  that  it  is  not  safe  to  give  any  definite  recommend- 
ations.) 

TRAVELLERS  from  Rome  to  Leghorn  are  generally 
quite  oppressed  by  the  ugliness  of  the  country  through 
which  they  travel.  The  malaria,  which  drives  away  the  in- 
habitants, naturally  causes  the  greater  part  of  the  country  to  be 
left  untilled  and  neglected,  and  it  is  for  the  most  part  covered 
with  low  brushwood,  or  left  to  the  dank  grass  and  thistles, 
which  grow  where  they  will  over  the  windstricken  uplands. 

The  wood  which  covers  other  districts  is  such  as  Dante 
describes : 

•'  Noi  ci  mettemmo  per  un  bosco 
Che  da  nessun  sentiero  era  segnato. 

Non  frondi  verdi,  ma  di  color  fosco, 
Non  rami  schietti,  ma  nodosi  e  involti, 
Non  pomi  v'eran,  ma  stecchi  con  tosco, 

Non  han  si  aspri  sterpi  ne  si  folti* 
Quelle  fiere  selvagge  che  in  odio  hanno 
Tra  Cecina  e  Corneto  i  luoghi  colti." 

Dante^  Inf.  xiiL  3. 


344  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

In  summer,  when  the  country  is  less  ugly,  few  see  it,  for  it 
is  more  dangerous.     Then  it  is  : — 

"The  green  Maremma  ! — 
A  sunbright  waste  of  beauty — ^yet  an  air 
Of  brooding  sadness  o'er  the  scene  is  shed  ; 
No  human  footstep  tracks  the  lone  domain — 
The  deseiL  of  luxuriance  glows  in  vain." 

Hemans. 

Once,  before  the  mysterious  pestilence  was  known,  this 
dismal  country  was  thickly  populated,  and  those  who  have 
patience,  in  the  safe  winter  months,  to  search  for  its  hidden 
cities,  and  endurance  to  undergo  a  certain  amount  of  hard- 
ship while  seeking  for  them,  will  not  be  unrewarded.  Yet 
while  many  excursions  are  made  to  seek  strange  ruins  in 
Persia  and  Arabia,  or  to  lay  bare  the  buried  cities  of  Bashan, 
the  lost  cities  of  the  Maremma,  so  much  nearer  at  hand,  re- 
main unheeded  and  unthought  of. 

*' '  In  the  Maremma,'  saith  the  proverb,  *  you  get  rich  in  a  year,  but — 
you  die  in  six  months ' — in  Maremma  s' arricchisce  in  un  anno,  si  niuore 
in  sei  mesi.  The  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  Maremma  are  made  the 
universal  excuse  for  every  inferiority  of  quantity,  quality,  or  workman- 
ship. You  complain  of  the  food  or  accommodation.  My  host  shrugs  his 
shoulders,  and  cries,  '  Ma  che — cosa  vuole,  signor  ?  siamo  in  Maremma  ? ' 
— what  would  you  have,  sir?  we  are  in  the  Maremma.  A  bungling 
smith  well-nigh  lamed  the  horse  I  had  hired  ;  to  my  complaints  he  re- 
plied, *  Cosa  vuole,  signor?  ^roba  di  Marem?na.^  *  Maremma-stuff'  is  a 
proverbial  expression  of  inferiority.  These  lower  regions  of  Italy,  in 
truth,  are  scarcely  deemed  worthy  of  a  place  in  a  Tuscan's  geography. 
*  Nel  7nondoy  o  in  Marem?na,^  has  for  ages  been  a  current  saying.  Thus 
Boccaccio's  Madonna  Lisetta  tells  her  gossip  that  the  angel  Gabriel  had 
called  her  the  handsomest  woman  '  in  the  world  or  in  the  Maremma. ' " — 
Dennis. 

While  the  country  is  a  desert,  even  the  later  cities  are  half 
deserted  and  ruined. 


ANSEDONIA.  34S 

**  Guarda,  mi  disse,  al  mare  ;  e  vidi  piana 
Cogli  altri  colli  la  Marema  tutta, 
Dilectivole  molto,  e  poco  sana. 
Ivi  e  Massa,  Grossetto,  e  la  distructa 
Civita  vechia,  e  ivi  Populonia, 
Che  a  pemia  pare  tanto  e  mal  conduta. 
Ivi  e  ancor  ove  fue  la  Sendonia. 
Questa  cita  e  altre  chio  non  dico, 
Sono  per  la  Marema  en  verso  Roma, 
Famose  e  grande  per  lo  tempo  antico. " 

Fazio  dedi  Ubertt. 


The  one  picturesque  point  between  Leghorn  and  Rome 
is  where  the  salt  lake  of  Orhetello  opens  upon  the  right  of 
the  railway,  reaching  in  a  shimmering  expanse  of  still  water, 
studded  with  fishing-boats,  to  the  abrupt  purple  cliffs  of 
Monte  Argentaro.  On  either  side  it  is  enclosed  by  sand- 
banks. Strabo  (v,  225)  mentions  this  lagoon  as  the  "sea- 
mark," and  it  adds  greatly  to  the  unhealthiness  of  the 
country,  which  it  abundantly  supplies  with  fish.  Orbetello 
is  surrounded  by  walls  built  in  the  17th  century  by  the 
Spaniards.  On  the  side  towards  the  sea  they  rest  upon  huge 
Pelasgic  blocks  of  polygonal  masonry.  Several  Etruscan 
tombs  have  also  been  found,  but  to  what  lost  city  these  re- 
mains belonged  has  never  been  discovered. 

At  the  point  where  the  Feniglia,  the  southern  sand-bank 
extending  from  Monte  Argentaro,  joins  the  mainland,  stand 
the  ruins  of  Ansedoiiia,  the  ancient  Cosa.  It  is  a  drive  of 
five  miles  from  Orbetello  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  which  is 
crowned  by  the  ruins,  and  here,  in  a  lane  on  the  right  of  the 
high  road,  is  the  house  called  "La  Selciatella,"  where  a 
guide  may  be  procured. 

The  conical  liill  which  is  occupied  by  the  remains  of  Cosa 


346  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

rises  600  feet  above  the  sea.     The  ancient  road  may  be 
traced  all  the  way  up  the  ascent. 

"The  form  of  the  ancient  city  is  a  rude  quadrangle,  scarcely  a  mile 
in  circuit.  The  walls  vary  from  12  to  30  feet  in  height,  and  are 
relieved,  at  intervals,  by  square  towers,  projecting  from  ii  to  15 
feet,  and  of  more  horizontal  masonry  than  the  rest  of  the  fortifications. 
Fourteen  of  these  towers,  square  and  external,  and  two  internal  and 
circular,  are  now  standing,  or  to  be  traced ;  but  there  were  probably 
more,  for  in  several  places  are  immense  heaps  of  ruins,  though  whether 
of  towers,  or  of  the  wall  itself  fallen  outwards,  it  is  difficult  to  de- 
termine. 

"Of  gates  there  is  the  orthodox  number  of  three  ;  one  in  the  centre 
of  the  northern,  southern,  and  eastern  walls  of  the  city  respectively. 
They  are  well  worthy  of  attention,  all  of  them  being  double,  like  the 
two  celebrated  gateways  of  Volterra,  though  without  even  the  vestige  of  an 
arch.  The  most  perfect  is  that  in  the  eastern  wall.  It  is  evident  that  it 
was  never  arched,  for  the  door-post,  still  standing,  rises  to  the  height  of 
nearly  20  feet  in  a  perfectly  upright  surface ;  and  as  in  the  Porta  di 
Diana  of  Volterra,  it  seems  to  have  been  spanned  by  a  lintel  of  wood, 
for  at  the  height  of  12  or  14  feet  is  a  square  hole  as  if  for  its  insertion." 
— Dennis. 

The  interior  of  the  walls  of  Cosa  is  now  a  mere  thicket  of 
thorns  and  brambles.  The  view  from  the  ramparts  is  most 
beautiful — Elba  is  visible,  and,  in  the  near  distance,  the 
island  of  Giannutri,  the  ancient  Artemisia.  Cosa  is  believed 
to  have  become  a  Roman  colony  b.  c.  280;  afterwards  the 
fidelity  of  its  people  to  the  Romans,  during  the  second 
Punic  war,  is  spoken  of  by  Livy  (xxvii.  10).  Rutilius  men- 
tions the  tradition  that  the  inhabitants  were  finally  hunted 
away  from  the  town  by  an  army  of  mice  : — 

"Cernimus  antiquas  nullo  custode  ruinas, 

Et  desolatae  moenia  fceda  Cosas. 
Ridiculam  cladis  pudet  inter  seria  causam 

Promere  ;  sed  risum  dissimulare  piget. 
Dicuntur  cives  quondam  migrare  coacti, 

Muribus  infestos  deseruisse  lares. 


MONTE  ARGENTARO.  347- 

Credere  maluerim  Pygmeoe  damna  cohortis, 
Et  conjuratas  in  sua  bella  grues." 

I.  285. 

A  delightful  excursion  may  be  made  from  Orbetello  to 

Mo?tte  ArgmtarOy  the  ancient  Mons  Argentarius.     On  the 

summit  of  one  of  its  two  peaks  is  the  Passionist  Convent 

called  //  Retiro. 

"Necdum  decessis  pelago  permittiraur  umbris, 
Natus  vicino  vertice  ventus  adest. 
Tenditur  in  medias  Mons  Argentarius  undas, 

Ancipitique  jugo  cserula  rura  premit. 
Transversos  colles  bis  ternis  millibus  arctat, 

Circuitu  ponti  ter  duodena  patet. 
Qualis  per  geminos  fluctus  Ephyreius  isthmus 
lonias  bimari  litore  findit  aquas." 

Rutilius,  i. 

At  the  base  of  the  mountain  on  its  south-eastern  shore  is 
Porto  a'ErcolCy  the  ancient  Portus  Herculis,  in  a  most 
beautiful  situation. 

**  Hand  procul  hinc  petitur  signatus  ab  Hercule  portus ; 
Vergentem  sequitur  mollior  aura  diem." 

Rut.  i. 

This  was  the  port  of  Cosa  (Portus  Cosanus),  in  the  terri- 
tory of  which  town  the  whole  of  the  Mons  Argentarius  was 
included.  Thus  Tacitus  (Ann.  ii)  speaks  of — "Cosa,  a 
promontory  of  Etruria."  Hence  Lepidus  embarked  for 
Sardinia,  when  driven  from  Italy  by  Catulus  in  b.  c.  78. 

It  is  about  eight  miles  inland  from  Orbetello  to  Magliano^ 
a  miserable  village  with  an  old  castle,  lying  between  the  Osa 
and  the  Albegna.  Near  this  place,  Dennis  was  led  by  the 
descriptions  of  Tommaso  Pasquinelli,  an  engineer,  to  make 
researches,  which  have  resulted  in  the  identification  of  an 
undoubted  Etruscan  site  (round  which  the  circuit  of  walls, 


348  DA  YS  NEAR  ROME. 

45  miles  in  circumference,  may  with  difficulty  be  traced), 
with  the  long-lost  and  much-sought  city  of  Vetulonia,  a  place 
of  first-rate  magnitude,  one  of  the  five  cities  which  under- 
took to  assist  the  Latins  against  Tarquinius  Priscus,  one  of 
the  twelve  great  towns  of  Etruria,*  and  the  place  whenc:e 
Rome  derived  its  lictors  and  fasces  and  the  use  of  brazen 
trumpets  in  war. 

"Moeonigeque  decus  quondam  Vetulonia  gen^is. 
Bissenos  hsec  prima  dedit  prsecedere  fasces, 
Et  junxit  totidem  tacito  terrore  secures ; 
Haec  altas  eboris  decoravit  honore  curules, 
Et  princeps  Tyrio  vestem  prsetexuit  ostro ; 
Hsec  eadem  pugnas  accendere  protulit  rere. " 

Sil.  Ital.  viii.  485. 

Several  painted  tombs  have  been  opened  near  this, 
though  they  have  been  reclosed;  and  many  small  Etruscan 
ornaments  have  been  found. 

"To  those  who  know  Italy,  it  will  be  no  matter  of  surprise  that  the 
existence  of  this  city  should  have  been  so  long  forgotten.  Had  there 
even  been  ruins  of  walls  or  temples  on  the  site,  such  things  are  too 
abundant  in  that  land  to  excite  particular  attention  j  and  generation 
after  generation  of  peasants  might  fold  their  flocks  or  stall  their  cattle 
amid  the  crumbling  ruins,  and  the  world  at  large  remain  in  ignorance 
of  their  existence.  Thus  it  was  with  Poestum ;  though  its  ruins  are  so 
stupendous  and  prominent,  it  was  unknown  to  the  antiquary  till  the  last 
century.  Can  we  wonder,  then,  that  in  the  Tuscan  Maremma,  not 
better  populated  or  more  frequented,  because  not  more  healthy,  than 
the  Campanian  shore,  a  city  should  have  been  lost  sight  of,  which  had 
no  walls  or  ruins  above-ground,  and  no  vestige  but  broken  pottery, 
which  tells  no  tale  to  the  simple  peasant  ?  " — Dennis, 

After  leaving  Orbetello,  the  railway  crosses  the  river  Al- 
begna,  and  four  miles  further,  the  Osa,  where  there  are  re- 
mains of  the  ancient  bridge  by  which  the  Via  Aurelia  crossed 

•  Dion.  Hal.  iii.  51.    Plin.  iii.  5. 


RUSELL^,  349 

the  river.  At  the  point  of  the  headland  beyond  this  is  an- 
other Etruscan  site,  in  a  village  with  a  castle  still  bearing 
the  old  name — Telamone,  which  tradition  says  was  derived 
from  Telamon,  the  Argonaut.  This  is  supposed  to  have 
been  the  port  of  Vetulonia.  It  was  here  that  Marius 
landed  on  his  return  from  Africa  in  b.  c.  87.  The  few  ruins 
remaining  are  all  of  Roman  times,  and  not  worth  seeing. 
The  Torre  della  Bella  Marsilia  records,  in  its  name,  the 
legend  that  a  beautiful  girl  of  the  Marsilj  family  was  carried 
off  thence  by  pirates  and  taken  to  Constantinople,  where 
she  was  raised  by  her  charms  to  the  dignity  of  Sultana. 

This  story  is  the  subject  of  one  of  the  most  popular  of  the 
refrains,  with  whose  melancholy  cadences  the  Maremma 
peasants  make  the  shores  re-echo.     It  begins  : — 

**  I  Turchi  son  venuti  nella  Maremma, 
E  hanno  preso  via  la  bella  Marsilia." 

Eighteen  miles  north  of  Telamone  is  (on  the  railway)  the 
fortified  cathedral  town  of  Grossefo,  five  miles  from  which  are 
the  ruins  oi  Rusellce.  A  guide  should  be  taken  from  the  hot- 
springs  called  I  Bagni  di  Roselle.  Nothing  remains  except 
the  walls,  which  enclose  a  space  two  miles  in  circumference, 
and  which  are  for  the  most  part  "  composed  of  enormous 
masses  piled  up  without  regard  to  form,  and  differing  only 
from  the  rudest  style  of  Cyclopean,  in  having  the  outer  sur- 
faces smoothed."  The  ruins  are  almost  inaccessible  from 
the  growth  of  the  thorny  shrub  "  marruca^^  with  which  they 
are  surrounded. 

Rusellae  is  believed  to  have  been  one  of  the  twelve  great 
cities  of  Etruria,  and  was  one  of  those  which  united  against 
Tarquinius  Priscus.     Livy  mentions  that  in  b.  c.  300  the 


350  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

consul,  M.  Valerius  Maximus,  led  an  army  into  the  territory 
of  Rusellse,  and  there  broke  the  might  of  the  Etruscans ;  and 
in  B.  c.  293  Rusellse  was  again  attacked  by  Postumius  Megel- 
lus,  the  consul,  who  took  2000  prisoners,  and  slew  almost  as 
many  around  the  walls  of  the  city.  Rusellse  continued  to 
exist  after  the  fall  of  the  Empire,  and  had  a  cathedral  till 
1 138,  when,  owing  to  the  number  of  brigands  who  infested 
the  country,  the  bishopric  was  transferred  to  Grosseto. 

West  of  Grosseto,  the  river  Ombrone  enters  the  sea. 
Pliny  represents  it  as  navigable. 

"  Tangimus  Umbronem  !  non  est  ignobile  flumen, 
Quod  toto  trepidas  excipit  ore  rates ; 
Tarn  facilis  pronus  semper  patet  alveus  undis, 
In  pontum  quoties  sseva  procella  ruit. " 

Ruiilius,  Itin.  i.  337. 

North  of  Grosseto,  the  high  road  runs  inland,  passing  the 
fever-bringing  fens  of  the  Lago  di  Casfiglione,  the  Lacus 
Prilis  of  Pliny.  On  the  left,  it  passes  under  the  wooded 
hill  of  Colonna^  supposed  to  have  been  the  ancient  Colonia, 
near  which  in  b.  c.  224  the  "  battle  of  Telamon  "  took  place, 
when  the  Cisalpine  Gauls  were  defeated  by  an  unexpected 
juncture  of  two  Roman  armies  under  the  Consuls  Emilius 
Paulus  and  C.  Attilius,  and  the  latter  consul  was  slain. 

On  the  coast  beyond  this  is  Porta  di  Troja,  the  ancient 
Portus  Trajanus,  and,  near  it,  the  little  Lake  of  Caldafio  and 
Porto  Falese,  the  Portus  Faleria. 

' '  Laxatum  cohibet  vicina  Faleria  cursum, 

Quanquam  vix  medium  Phoebus  haberet  iter. 

Et  tum  forte  hilares  per  compita  rustica  pagis 
Mulcebant  sacris  pectora  fessa  jocis. 

Illo  quippe  die  tandem  renovatus  Osiris 
Excitat  in  fruges  germina  leeta  novas. 


POPULONIA,  35 1 

Egressi  villain  petimus,  lucoque  vagamur ; 

Stagna  placent  septo  deliciosa  vado. 
Ludere  lascivos  inter  vivaria  pisces 

Gurgitis  inclusi  laxior  unda  sinit." 

Rutilius,  i.  371. 

On  the  right  of  the  road  is  Massa,  occupying  a  hill-sum- 
mit, with  a  small  13th-century  cathedral  dedicated  to  S.  Cer- 
bone.  The  place  has  so  bad  a  reputation  for  malaria  as  to 
give  rise  to  the  proverb, 

*'  Massa,  massa, 
Salute  passa." 

The  high  road  rejoins  the  coast  at  La  Fallonica^  where  there 
are  extensive  iron  works,  founded  by  the  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany.  Fallonica  occupies  the  centre  of  the  bay  of 
Piombino,  in  front  of  which  lies  Elba,  and,  nearer,  the  islets  of 
Palmajolaand  Cerboli.  The  bay  is  closed  by  the  peninsula 
of  Piombino^  the  IIoTrXwvit/v  ok-joov  of  Ptolemy,  which  gives  the 
tide  of  Prince  to  the  Buoncompagni  family.  The  small 
town  of  Piombino  is  quite  without  interest,  but,  five  miles 
distant,  on  the  other  side  of  the  peninsula,  is  FoJ^ulonia,  with 
a  picturesque  mediaeval  castle. 

"The  ancient  family  of  the  Desiderj  have  been  the  hereditary  lords 
of  Populonia  for  centuries ;  and  they  still  dwell  within  the  castle  walls, 
in  the  midst  of  their  dependents,  retaining  all  the  patriarchal  dignity 
and  simplicity  of  the  olden  time,  and  with  hospitality  in  no  age  surpassed, 
welcoming  the  traveller  with  open  doors." — Dennis. 

The  walls  of  the  Etruscan  town  Pupluna  remain,  and  are 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  in  circumference.  They  consist  of  rude 
masses  of  stone  in  horizontal  layers.  This  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  most  important  maritime  city  of  Etniria,  and 
was  the  only  Etruscan  town  which  had  a  silver  coinage  of 
its  o^vn.     It  probably  derived  its  importance  from  its  near- 


352  DAYS  NEAR  ROME. 

ness  to  the  island  of  Elba  (Ilva),  the  iron  found  there  being 
taken  to  Populonia  to  be  smelted,  and  exported  to  other 
places.  In  b.  c.  205,  when  Scipio  was  preparing  his  fleet  for 
Africa,  and  the  Etruscan  cities  brought  him  contributions, 
Populonia  supplied  the  iron.*  The  town  never  recovered  a 
siege  from  Sylla,  and  in  the  time  of  Strabo  only  the  temples 
and  a  few  houses  remained  in  the  old  city  on  the  height, 
though  the  port  was  still  used,  and  a  new  town  had  grown 
up  around  it.  In  the  time  of  Rutilius  the  place  was  nothing 
but  ruins,  though  he  mentions  a  beacon-tower  for  ships  on 
the  highest  point  of  the  hill. 

*'  Proxima  securum  reserat  Populonia  litus 

Qua  naturalem  ducit  in  arva  sinum. 
Non  illic  positas  extollit  in  gethera  moles, 

Lumine  nocturne  conspicienda  Pharos, 
Sed  speculam  validse  rupis  sortita  vetustas, 

Qua  fluctas  domitos  arduus  urget  apex. 
Castellum  geminos  hominum  fundavit  in  usui, 

Prassidium  terris,  indiciumque  fretis, 
Agnosci  nequeunt  aevi  monumenta  prioris  ; 

Grandia  consumpsit  moenia  tempus  edax. 
Sola  manent  interceptis  vestigia  muris  ; 

Ruderibus  latis  tecta,  sepulta  jacent. 
Non  indignemur,  mortalia  corpora  solvi ; 

Cernimus  exemplis,  oppida  posse  mori." 

Rut.  i.  401. 

Gregory  the  Great,  in  the  sixth  century,  describes  the  com- 
plete decay  of  the  place,  though  it  continued  to  be  an  epis* 
copal  see.     The  view  is  beautiful  from  the  hill  of 

*'  sea-girt  Populonia, 
"Whose  sentinels  descry 
Sardinia's  snowy  mountain-tops 
Fringing  the  southern  sky." 

Macaulay. 

*  Livy,  xxviii.  45. 


LE  CALDANE.  353 

The  hot-springs,  which  were  known  as  Aqua  Populonia, 
are  those  now  called  Le  Caldane,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  of 
Campiglia,  which  is  capped  by  some  mediaeval  ruins. 

North  of  this,  and  far  beyond  the  limits  of  any  possible 
excursions  from  Rome,  are  the  great  Etruscan  Volterra 
(Volaterrae),  and,  upon  the  far  sea-coast,  Luni  (Luna),  the 
most  northerly  city  of  Etruria. 


THE  END 


VOL.  II. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Acque  Salvie,  ii.  290 

Acuto,  i.  267 

Ad   Medias,   Roman  station  of,  ii. 

249 
-^sula,  i.  190 
Agosta,  i.  320 
Agylla,  ii.  304 
Alatri,  i.  251  ;  ii.  10 
Alba  Fucinensis,  ii.  183 
Alba  Longa,  site  of,  i.  73 
Alban  Lake,  i.  67 
Alban  Mount,  distant  view  of,  i.  51  ; 

summit  of,  i.  85 
Albano,  i.  59—80 
Albula,  river,  i.  185 
Aldobrandini,   family  of — their  villa 

at  Frascati,  i.  104 
Alexander  III.,  Pope — his  consecra- 
tion at  Ninfa,  i.  236 
AUia,  the  river,  i.  175,  181 
Altieri,    family    of  —  their    villa    at 

Oriolo,  i.  152 
Aluminiera,  ii.  311 
Amasena,  the  river,  ii.  10,  249,  259 
Amatrice,  ii.  161 
Amelia,  ii.  T39 
Amiternum   ii.  161 
Amphitheatre  of  Albano,  i.  66 

Albai  Fucensis,  ii.  184 
Sutri,  ii.  od 
Tuiculum,  i.  107 
Ampiglione,  i.  207 
Anagni,  i.  259 — 267 
Angelico,  Fra,  his  frescoes  at  Orvieto, 

ii.  128 
Angitia,  ii.  189 
Anguillara,  i.  152 

Anio,  river,  i.  185  ;  falls  of,  atTivoli, 
i.  194,  196  ;  at  Subiaco,  i.  316 


Anio  Novus,  Aqueduct  of,  at  Tivoli, 

i.  204 
Ansedonia,  ii.  345 
Antinum,  ii.  191 
Antium,  ii.  268 
Antrodoco,  ii.  163 
Antemnse,  i.  167 
Anxur,  ii.  251 
Appii  Forum,  ii.  248 
Appiola,  i.  55 
Aquae  Albulas,  i.  186 
Aqua  BoUicante,  i.  154 
Aquae  Cutilias,  ii.  162 
Aqua  Ferentina,  ii.  290 
Aqueduct  of  the  Anio  Novus,  i.  281 
Aqua  Claudia,  i.  52, 

97,  281 
Aqua  Marcia,  i.  295 
Aqua  Vergine,  i.  162 
Delia  Torre  at  Spo- 

leto,  ii.  146 
Paoline,  i.  97 
Aquataccia,  the,  ii.  290 
Aquila,  ii.  163 — 169 
Aquino,  ii.  234 — 241 
Area,  i.  259 
Arce,  ii.  202 
Arco  di  Pino,  i.  140 
Ardea,  ii.  276 
Ariccia,  i.  62 
Arnara,  i.  259 
Arnolfo,  tomb  of  Cardinal  de  Braye 

by,  ii.  133 
Arpino,  ii.  198 

Arpino,    II  Cavaliere  d'  —  picture  at 
Trisulti  by,  ii.  18  ;  birthplace  ot, 
ii.  200 
Arrone,  rivulet,  i.  144 
Arsoli,  i.  320 
Artena,  i.  268 
Aspra,  ii.  25 


INDEX, 


555 


Astura,  ii.  27 
Atina,  ii.  203 
Augustus,  bridge  of — at  Narni,  ii. 

136 
Avezzano,  n.  183 


B. 

Baccano,  i.  141 

Bagnaja,  ii.  89 

Bagni  di  Paterno,  ii.  162 

Bagnorea,  ii.  116 

Balbi  of  Alatri,  works  of,  ii.  18 

Balzorano,  ii.  192 

Barberini,  Cardinal,  i.  127 ;  the 
family  Dukes  of  Segni,  i.  242 ; 
their  palace  at  Palestrina,  i.  275  ; 
their  residence  at,  i.  281 

Bardella,  i.  209 

Basilica  of  S.  Alessandro,  i.  178 

Bassano,  Francesco  and  Leandro, — 
frescoes  by,  ii.  229 

Bernini,  Chigi  Palace  at  Ariccia  by, 
i.  63 

Bertaldo,  tower  of,  ii.  314 

Bieda,  ii.  97 — 100 

Bisentina,  island  of,  ii.  10 

Blera,  ii.  97 

Bomanzo,  ii.  107 

Boniface  VIII.,  the  story  of,  i.  263 — 
265  ;  his  persecution  of  the  Colonna 
family,  i.  272  ;  his  treatment  of 
Coelestine  V.,  ii.  7 

Borghese,  property  of, — at  Frascati, 
i.  116  ;  at  Cervaretto,  i.  162  ;  at 
Palombara,  i.  179  ;  at  Porto 
d'Anzio,  ii.  267  ;  at  Pratica,  i.  282  ; 
at  Rocca  Priora,  i.  168 

Borghetto,  on  the  Alban  hills,  i.  99 
in  the  Sabina,  ii.  33 

Borgia,  Caesar, — his  siege  of  Isola 
Farnese,  i.  132 

Borgo  Velino,  ii.  163 

Bovillae,  i.  55 

Bracciano,  i.  146 

Bramante,  La  Quercia  built  by,  ii.  88 

Braschi,  family  of, — Villa  Adriana  the 
property  of,  road  constructed  by, 
i.  190  ;  villa  at  Tivoli  of,  i.  204 

Brigands  in  the  Campagna,  i.  35  ; 
their  attack  on  the  family  of  Lucien 
Buonaparte,  i.  105  ;  their  encour- 
agement by  the  Sardinian  Govern- 
ment, ii.  36 

Bruno,  Bishop,  his  statue  at  Segni, 
his  history,  i.  245,  246 


Bulicame,  the, — baths  of,  ii.  93 

Buonaparte,  family  of, — their  pro- 
perty at  Frascati,  i.  105  ;  at  Musig- 
nano,  ii.  334  ;  their  connexion  with 
Canino,  ii.  334  ;  their  burial-place 
at  Corneto,  ii.  317 

Buenaventura,  S., — birth-place  of, 
ii.  116 

Buon  Ricovero,  farm  of,  131 

C. 

Caere,  ii.  304 

Camaldoli,  convent  of  the,  on   the 

Alban  hills,  i.  113 
CamindoH,  ii.  181 

Campagna,  the,  —  its  geographical 
Hmits,  i.  II,  12  ;  characteristics  of 
the,  i.  19,  32  ;  effect  of  the,  i.  98  ; 
lost  cities  of  the,  i.  144  ;   in  the 
direction  of  Ostia,  ii.  292  ;  views 
over,  i.  131 
Campagnano,  i.  141 
Campiglia,  hill  of,  ii.  353 
Campo  Bufalaro,  ii.  287 
di  Annibale,  i.  84 
Morto,  i.  40  ;  ii.  245 
Canino,  ii.  334 
Cantalupo,  i.  320 
Canterano,  i.  320 
Capistrello,  ii.  191 
Capranica,  ii.  104 
Caprarola,  ii.  65 — 73 
Carciano,  a  suburb  of  Tivoli,  i.  206 
Carsoli,  ii.  186 

Cartiera,  the, — of  Isola,  ii.  198 
Casale  dei  Pazzi,  i.  178 
Casamari,  ii.  8 — 10 
Casa  Nuova,  i.  179 
Castel  d'Asso,  ii.  89 — 94 
Fusano,  i.  47 — 49 
Gandolfo,  i.  72 
Giubeleo,  i.  173 
Madama,  i.  207 
deir  Osa,  i.  160,  164 
Porciano,  ii.  287 
di  Sangro,  ii.  178 
Ca-stiglione,  tower  of,  i.  157 
Castle  of — 

Anguillara,  i.  152 

Antrodoco,  ii.  163 

Aquila,  ii.  169 

Ardea,  ii.  277 

ArsoU,  i.  320 

Avezzano,  ii.  183 

Borgetto,  near  Frascati,  i.  99 


3^6 


INDEX. 


Castle  of — continued. 

Borghetto,  in  the  Sabina,  ii.  33 

Bracciano,  i.  147 

Cantelupo,  i.  32 

Castel  di  Saiigro,  ii.  178 

Castel  Fusano,  i.  47 

Celano,  ii.  181 

Ceprano,  ii.  205 

Civita  Castellana,  ii.  35 

Galera,  i.  146 

Isola,  ii.  202 

Montalto,  ii.  329 

Nemi,  i.  88 

Nepi,  ii.  58 

Olevano,  i.  291 

Ortucchio,  ii.  190 

Orvieto,  ii.  134 

Ostia,  i.  42 

Palestrina,  i.  280 

Passerano,  i.  206 

Petrella,  ii.  162 

Popoli,  ii.  169 

Populonia,  ii.  351 

Pratica,  ii.  283 

Rocca  Janula,  ii.  208 

Ronciglione,  ii.  64 

Roviano,  i.  320 

Savelli,  at  Albano,  i.  79 

JSegni,  i.  242 

Sermoneta,  ii.  246 

S.  Severa,  ii.  312 

Spoleto,  ii.  146 

Subiaco,  i.  320 

Tivoli,  i.  194 

Viterbo,  ii.  79 
Castro,  ii.  338 
Castro  Vetere,  i.  194 
Castrum  Novum,  Roman  station  of, 

ii-  313 
Cathedral  of— 

Alatri,  i.  253 

Albano,  i.  78 

Anagni,  i.  261 — 267 

Bieda,  ii.  97 

Civita  Castellana,  ii.  36 

Corneto,  ii.  315 

Ferentino,  i.  256 

Frascati,  i.  99,  100 

Massa,  ii.  35 

Narni,  ii.  139 

Orvieto,  ii.  120 

Ostia,  i.  43 

Palestrina,  i.  275 

Pontecorvo,  ii.  242 

Porto,  ii.  298 

Ronciglione,  ii.  64 


Cathedral  oi— continued, 
Segni,  i.  245 
Spoleto,  ii.  147 
Sutri,  ii.  64 
Terni,  ii.  140 
Terracina,  ii.  252 
Tivoli,  i.  202 
Todi,  ii.  143 
Toscanella,  ii.  336 
Valmontone,  i.  269 
Velletri,  i.  223 
Cavaliere,  ii.  186 
Cavamonte,  i.  160 
Cavi,  i.  283 
Ceccano,  ii.  205 
Celano,  ii.  181. 

Lago  di,  ii.  186 
Centumcellae,  ii.  313 
Ceprano,  ii.  205 
Cerbara,  near  Subiaco,  i.  320 
Ceri  Nuovo,  ii.  311 
Cervara,  caves  and  tower  of,  i.  162  ; 

festa  of,  i.  163 
Cervaretto,  i.  154,  162 
Cervetri,  ii.  302 — 311 
Cesarini,  family  of  the, — their  pro- 
perty at  Genzano,  i.  90  ;  at  Ardea, 
ii.  277. 
Chiarriccia,  ii.  313 
Chigi,    family   of, — their  palace    at 
Castel  JFusano,  i.  47  ;  at  Arriccia, 
i.  63. 
Ciampino,  i.  98 
Ciminian  Hills,  ii.  59 — 74 
Cioccari,  the,  i.  287 
Circean  Mount,  ii.  253 
Circeii,  tov^n  of,  ii.  255 
Cisterna,  ii.  244 
Citadel  of  Tusculum,  i.  109 

Veil,  i.  136 
Civita  Castellana,  ii.  33—39 
d'Antino,  ii.  191 
Ducale,  ii.  162 
Lavinia,  i.  93 
la  Penna  d'Oro,  i.  231 
di  Roveto,  ii.  191 
Vecchia,  ii.  313 
Civitella,  i.  291 
Claudian  Aqueduct,  near  Tixoli,  i. 

206,  207 
CoUatia,  i.  164 
CoUemaggio,  La,  ii.  166 
CoUepardo,  village  of,  ii.  13  ;  Grotto 

of,  ii.  19 
CoUicelli,  ii.  161 
Coionelle,  Lago  della,  i.  186 


INDEX. 


3S> 


Colonia,  ii.  350 
Colonna,  i.  iiy 

Colonna,  family  of, — at  Marino,  i. 
130 ;  at  Galera,  i.  145  ;  at  Colonna, 
i.  118  ;  at  Olevano,  i.  291  ;  their 
Pope,  i.  288  ;  at  Cavi,  i.  282  ;  at 
Paliano,  i.  288  ;  at  Palestrina,  i. 
272—280 
Colonna,   Vittoria,  her  residence  at 

Viterbo.  ii.  85. 
Columbariunri  of  Veii,  i.  134 
Concioli,  frescoes  at  Subiaco  by,  i. 

308 
Convent  of — 
Aciito,  i.  267 
Buon  Pastore,  near  Cavamonte, 

i.  160 
Camaldoli,  i.  113 
Cappuccini,  at  Albano,  i.  65 
Cappuccini,  at  Frascati,  i.  105 
Cappuccini,  at  Subiaco,  i.  318 
Cappuccini,  at  Velletri,  i.  224 
Casamari,  i.  8 
Fossanuova,  ii.  255 
Gesuiti,  at  Velletri,  i.  225 
Grotta  Ferrata,  i.  126 
II  Retiro,  on  Monte  Argentaro, 

ii-  347 
La  Madonna  del  Sorbo,  i.  143 
La  Quercia,  ii.  88 
Monte  Cassino,  ii.  208 
Passionists,  on  Monte  Cavo,  i.  85 
S.  Casciano  at  Nami,  ii.  137 
S.  Elia,  ii.  56 
S.  Pietro  Celestino,  ii.  176 
Sacro  Speco,  i.  306 
S.  Scholastica,  i.  303 
S.  Silvestro,  near  Monte  Com- 
patri,  i.  121 
on  Mount  Soracte, 
ii.  48 
Trisulti,  ii.  19 
Consular  Tomb  at  Palazzuola,  i.  82 
Conti,   family  of,— their  possessions 
at  Segni,  i.  242  ;  their  fortress  at 
Monte  Fortino,  i.  268 
Corchiano,  ii.  54 
Corcolo,  i.  161 
Corese,  i.  180 
Corfinium,  ii.  179 
Corioli,  i.  95 
Corneto,  ii.  315—327 
Cornufelle,  Lake  of,  i.  116 
Cosa,  ii.  345 

Cosmati,   the  family  of, — the    Gae- 
tani  tomb  at  Anagni  by,  i.  266; 


mosaics  at  Subiaco  by,  i.  304  ;  at 
Civita  Castellana  by,  ii.  34 
Crimera,  the  river,  i.  133,  175 
Crustumerium,  i.  182 
Cyclopean  walls  of — 

Alatri,  i.  251 — 253 

Amelia,  ii.  139 

Arpino,  ii.  200 

Atina,  ii.  203 

Cori,  i.  228 

Cosa,  ii.  345 

Ferentino,  i.  256 

Norba,  i.  231 

Palestrina,  i.  280 

Pyrgi,  ii.  313 

Segni,  i.  243 


D. 


Dennis,  his  work  on  Etruria,  i.  17 
Digentia,  the  brook,  i.  209 
Diligence  travelling,  i.  34 
Domenichino,  his  frescoes  at  Grotta 

Ferrata,  i.  127 
Doria   Pamphili,   family  of,  —  their 

property  at  Valmontone,  i.  269 
Dragoncello,  ii.  291 


Egeria,  fountain  of,   near  Nemi,  i. 

89 
Emissarium  of  the  Alban  Lake,  i.  69 
of  the  Lago  Fucino,  ii 
188 
Empulum,  i.  207 
Eretum,  i.  181 

Expenses,   of  living,  in  the  Roman 
castelli,  i.  28 


F. 


Fajola,  La,  i.  87 

Falacrino,  ii.  161 

Falacrinum,  ii.  141 

Falerium  Novum,  ii.  42 

Falerium  Vetus,  ii.  36 

Fallen,  ii.  40 — 42 

Fara,  ii.  25 

Farfa,  ii.  21 — 31 

Famese,  ii.  338 

Farnese,  Cardinal  Odoardo,  chapel 

of  Grotta  Ferrata  built  by,  i.  127 
Famese,  family  of, — their  palace  at 

Caprarola,  ii.  68 


358 


INDEX. 


Ferentino,  station  of,  i.  250  ;  town 
of,  i.  255—257 

Ferentinum,  ii.  105 

Ferento,  ii.  105 

Ferias  Latinae,  i.  85 

Feronia,  the  fountain  of,  ii.  250 

Fescennium,  ii.  55 

Festa  degli  Artisti,  i.  163 

Fiano,  ii.  54 

Ficulea,  i.  179 

Fiora,  the  river,  ii.  329 

Fiunie  Conca,  ii.  273 

Fiume  Rapido,  ii.  207 

Fiumicino,  ii.  301 

Fons  Blandusiae,  i.  216 

Fossanuova,  ii.  257 

Fosso  de'  due  Fossi,  i.  133,  144 
dell'  Incastro,  ii.  278 

Frangipani,  the,  —  their  castle  at 
Olevano,  i.  291  ;  their  betrayal  of 
Conradin  at  Astura,  ii.  271 

Frascati,  i.  99 — 107 

Fregellae,  ii.  301 

Frosinone,  ii.  21 

Fucino,  Lago  di,  ii.  186 

Fumone,  i.  254  ;  ii.  7. 


Gaetani,  family  of, — property  of,  at 
Ninfa,  i.  236  ;  history  and  me- 
morials of,  at  Anagni,  i.  260,  266  ; 
palace  of,  at  Cisterna,  ii.  244  ; 
property  of,  at  Sermoneta,  ii.  246  ; 
property  of,  at  Monte  Circello,  ii. 
254  ;  castle  of,  at  Astura,  ii.  272 

Galera,  i.  144 

Galleria,  di  Sopra,  Albano,  i.  69 
di  Sotto,  Albano,  i.  75 

Gallese,  ii.  54 

Gallicano,  i.  160 

Gallo,  Marchese  del,  castle  of,  i.  209 

Gasperoni,  his  imprisonment  at  Ci- 
vita  Castellana,  ii.  36 

Gell,  Sir  William,  his  work  on 
Roman  Topography,  i.  17 

Genazzano,  i.  283 

Genzano,  i.  89 

Gonsalvi,  death  of  Cardinal,  i.  129 

Gran  Sasso  d'  Italia,  ii.  163 

Graviscae,  ii.  328 

Grazioli,  Duke  of,  i.  164 

Greco,  Stammatico,  picture  at  Su- 
biaco  by,  i.  313 

Gregorovius,  works  of,  i.  17 

Grosseto,  ii.  349 


Grotta  della  Maga,  ii.  250 

Ferrata,  i.  123 

Marozza,  i.  181 
Guadagnolo,  i.  291 

H. 

Hadrian,  his  villa  near  Palestrina,  i. 
277  ;  his  villa  near  Tivoli,  i.  188 

Handbooks,  the  best  on  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Rome,  i.  18 

Hermitage  of  Pietro    Murrone,    ii. 

173 
Horace,  farm  of,  i.  210 — 218 


I. 

Ibi,  Sinibaldo,  picture  at  Orvieto  by, 

ii-  133 
II  Toraccio,  n.  273 
Incile,  ii.  188 

Infiorata,  festival  of  the,  i.  91 
Interamna,  ii.  140 
Ischia,  ii.  338 
Isernia,  ii.  179 
Isola,  ii.  202 
Isola  Farnese,  i.  132 
Isola  Sacra,  ii.  299 
Isole  Natanti,  Lago  dei,  i.  186 


J- 


Jenne,  i.  316 
Joanopohs,  i.  39 

L. 

Labicum,  i.  119 

Lacordaire,  the  profession  of,  ii.  89 

Lacus  Sabatinus,  i.  152 

La  Civita,  i.  268 

La  Fallonica,  ii.  351 

La  Maiella,  ii.  163,  170 

La  Mercareccia,  ii.  327 

La  Querela,  ii.  88 

La  Solfatara,  ii.  280 

La  Storta,  i.  132,  143 

La  Vaccareccia,  i.  140 

Lago  di  Albano,  i.  67 

Bolsena,  ii.  100 

Bracciano,  i.  147 

Caldano,  ii.  350 

Caprolace,  ii.  273 

Castiglione,  ii.  353 

Celano,  ii.  186 

Cornufelle,  i.  116 


INDEX. 


359 


LiOgo  di — continued. 

Fogliano,  ii.  273 

Fucino,  ii.  181,  i36 

Gabii,  i.  157 

La  Posta,  ii.  203 

Lago  Morto,  i.  146 

Mezzano,  ii.  339 

Nemi,  i.  88 

Paolo,  ii.  256 

Pie  di  Lugo,  ii.  143 

Regillus,  i.  116 

Scanno,  ii.  177 
Lancellotti,  family  of, — their  villa  at 
Frascati,  i.   105 ;   their  palace  at 
Velletri,  i.  221 
Lante,  family  of, — their  villa  at  Bag- 

naja,  ii.  89 
Lautulse,  pass  of,  ii.  253 
Lavinium,  ii.  281 
Le  Caldane,  ii.  353 
Le  Casacce  del  Bacuco,  ii.  105 
Le  Frattocchie,  i.  53 
I^  Molette,  the  river,  i.  185 
\jQ.  Vene,  ii.  153 
Licenza,  the,  i.  209 

village  of,  i.  211 
Ligorio,  Pirro,  the  architect  of  the 

Villa  d'  Este,  i.  203 
Lionessa,  ii.  160 
Lippi,  Filippo,  tomb  of,  ii.  147 
Liris,  falls  of  the,  ii.  202 
Lo  Schioppo,  ii.  191 
Lo  Spagna,  his  frescoes  at  Todi,  ii. 
143  ;  at  Spoleto,  ii.  147,  149,  150  ; 
at  S.  Giacomo,  ii.  151 ;  at  Trevi,  ii. 
156 
Lomentana,  Ponte,  i.  178 
Loreto,  ii.  241 
Luco,  ii.  189 
Lucus  Ferentinae,  i.  130 
Lunghezza,  i.  164 


M. 


Maccarese,  ii.  301 

Madonna  del  Tufo,  shrine  of,  i.  82 

Madonna  di  Buon  Consiglio,  shrine 

of,  i.  283 
Maglian  Sabina,  ii.  33 
Magliano,  ii.  347 
Magliano,  river,  i.  185 
Malaria,  the,  i.  26,  145 
Mandela,  i.  209 
Marcian  Aqueduct,   near  Tivoli,  i. 

206 


Marcigliana    Vecchia,    the    site    of 

Crustumerium  at,  i.  182 
Marco  da  Siena,  frescoes  at  Monte 

Cassino  by,  ii.  229 
Marino,  i.  130 
Marrana,  river,  i.  185 
Marsica,  the,  ii.  182 
Marta,  the  river,  ii.  328 
Martana,  island  of,  ii.  100 
Massa,  ii.  356 
Massimi,  family  castle  at  Arsoli,   i. 

320 ;  dukes  of  Rignano,  ii.  52 
Matthias,  Maria  de,  i.  267 
Mazzaroppi,    Marco,  —  frescoes    at 

Monte  Cassino  by,  ii.  228 
MeduUia,  Latin  city  of,  i.  178 
Memmi,  Luca,  his  picture  at  Orvieto, 

ii.  127 
Mengs,  Raphael,  picture  at  Sulmona 

by,  ii.  136 
Mentana,  i.  179 
Mentorella,  i.  292,  295 
Mesa,  ii.  248 
Mignone,  river,  ii.  314 
Minio,  river,  ii.  314 
MioUis,  General,  his  works  at  Tivoli, 

i-  195 
Monica,  S.,  her  death  at  Ostia,  i.  45 
Mons  Lucretilis,  i.  209 

Sacer,  i.  178 
Montalto,  ii.  329 
Monte  Aflfliano,  i.  190 

Algido,  i.  118 

Argentaro,  ii.  347 

di  Canino,  ii.  334 

Carpineto,  i.  317 

Cassino,  i.  208 — 230 

Catillo,  i.  198,  203 

Circello,  ii.  253 

Compatri,  i.  118 

di  Decima,  ii.  291 

Due  Torre,  i.  95 

Fortino,  i.  268 

Gennaro,  i.  218 

Gentile,  i.  179 

Giove,  i.  95 

di  Grano,  i.  97 

Libretti,  i.  209 

Luco,  ii.  150 

Migliore,  ii.  284 

Musino,  i.  140 

Peschiavatore,  i.  198 

Porzio,  i.  117,  121 

Rotondo,  i.  i8i 

Salviano,  ii.  191 

Somma,  ii.  145 


36o 


INDEX. 


Montefiascone,  ii.  107 — no 
Monterozzi,  the, — of  Cometo,  ii.  317 
Montes  Corniculani,  i.  178,  186,  219 
Montopoli,  ii.  25 
Morolo,  i.  259 
Musignano,  ii.  334 

N. 

Nar,  the  river,  ii.  136 

Narni,  ii.  136 — 139 

Nemi,  i.  88 

Nepi,  ii.  58,  59 

Nepete,  ii.  58 

Nequinum,  ii.  136' 

Nero,  his  death,  i.  170 — 173  ;  his 
residence  at  Subiaco,  i.  294 

Nero's  Tomb,  i.  131 

Nettuno,  ii.  268 

Ninfa,  i.  235 — 240 

Nomentana,  Ponte,  Torre,  i.  178 

Nomentum,  i.  180 

Norba,  i.  231 

Norcia,  in  the  Abruzzi,  ii.  160 

Norchia,  ii.  95 — 104 

Norma,  i.  233 

Novels,  about  Rome  and  its  sur- 
roundings, i.  17 


Palace  (Palazzo) — 

Barberini,  at  Palestrina,  i.  275 
Bruschi,  at  Corneto,  ii.  315 
of  Castel  Gandolfo,  i.  73 
Cesarini,  at  Genzano,  i.  90 
Cisterna,  ii.  244 
Chigi,  at  Ariccia,  i.  63 
atViterbo,  ii.  85 
^,  Doria,  at  Valmontone,  i.  219 

of  Musignano,  ii.  334 
ofTheodoric  (ruined),  at  Terra- 

cina,  ii.  253 
Vincentini,  at  Rieti,  ii.  160 
Vitelleschi,  at  Corneto,  ii.  315 

Palazzuola,  i.  82 

Palestrina,  i.  269 — 281 

Paliano,  i.  288 

Palo,  ii.  302 

Palombara,  i.  178 

Pan  di  Neve,  i.  84 

Pandataria,  island  of,  i.  227 

Panetella  di  S.  Nicolo,  i.  150 

Papal  Palace,  Anagni,  i.  260 

Castel  Gandolfo,  i.  72 


Papal  Palace,  Orvieto,  ii.  120 
Subiaco,  i.  317 
Viterbo,  ii.  77 
Papignia,  i.  97  ;  ii.  141 
Papigno,  ii.  158 
Parco  dei  Barberini,  i.  123 
Chigi,  i.  64 
Colonna,  i.  131 
Passerano,  i.  206 
Patrica,  i.  259 
Pedum,  i.  160 
Pelasgic  Remains,  i.  22 
Pentima,  ii.  179 
Pescina,  ii.  190 
Petrella,  ii.  162 
Pie  de  Lugo,  ii.  143 
Pifferari,  the  exile  from  Rome  of  the, 

i.  14 
Pino,  rivulet,  i.  133 
Piombino,  ii.  350 
Piperno,  ii.  257 
Pitigliano,  ii.  339 
Plautii,  tomb  of  the,  i.  187 
Poggio  Catino,  ii.  25 
Mirteto,  ii.  25 
Reale,  i.  136 
Polo,  i.  218 
Pompeo,  ii.  25 
Ponte  deir  Abbadia.  ii.  330 

deir  Acquoria,  i.  200 

S.  Antonio,  i.  281 

alia  Catena,  i.  230 

dell  Isola,  i.  134 

Lucano,  i,  187 

Mammolo,  i.  184 

Nomentana,  i.  178 

Nona,  i.  155 

Salara,  i.  168 

Sodo,  i.  134 
Pontecorvo,  ii.  241 
Pontine  Marshes,  ii.  247 — 250 
Ponza,  island  of,  i.  226 
Popoli,  ii.  170 
Populonia,  ii.  351 
Porcigliano,  ii.  287 
Portella,  frontier  gateway  of,  ii.  253 
Porto,  ii.  296 — 299 
Porto  d'Anzio,  ii.  263 — 267 

d'Ercole,  ii.  347 

Falese,  ii.  350 

di  Paolo,  ii  256 

di  Troja,  ii.  350 
Posi,  i.  259 

Pozzo  di  SantuUa,  ii.  13 
Pratica,  ii.  281 
Prato  Rotondo,  i.  169 


INDEX. 


361 


Precious  Blood,  the  Order  of  the,  i. 

267 
Privernum,  ii.  257 
Punicum,  Roman  station  of,  ii.  313 
Puntone  del  Castrato,  ii.  313 
Pyrgi,  ii.  313 

Q. 

Querquetula,  i.  161 
Quintiliolo,  i.  198 

R. 

Rapinium,  Roman  station  of,  ii.  314 

Regillus,  Lake  of,  i.  116 

Rieti,  ii.  158 

Rignano,  ii.  52 

Rio  Torto,  ii.  279 

Ripoli,  i.  190 

Rocca  di  Cavi.  i.  291 

Circea,  ii.  254 

Giovane,  i.  209 

Gorga,  i.  259 

Janula,  ii.  208 

Massima,  i.  226 

di  Mezzo,  ii.  181 

di  Papa,  i.  82 

Priora,  i.  118 
Ronciglione,  ii.  64 
Rosa  S. ,  di  Viterbo,  ii.  83 
Rospigliosi,    family  of, — their  pro- 
perty at  Colonna,  i.  119  ;  at  Za- 
garola,  their  title,  i.  161 
Roviano,  i.  320 
Ruspoli,   family  of,— their  property 

at  Cervetri,  their  title,  ii.  304 
Rnsselae,  ii.  349 
Rustica,  i.  163 


S. 


Sacro  Speco,  monastery  of  tlie,  1. 306 
Salt  Mines,  near  Ostia,  i.  41 
S.  Agostino,  tower  of,  ii.  314 

Angelo  in  Cappoccia,  i.  178,  186, 
219 

Appetite,  ii.  181 

Bartolomeo,  i.  127 

Benedetto,  ii.  190 

Clementino,  ii.  329 

Cosimato,  i.  320 

Domenico  Abate,  ii.  194 

Elia,  ii.  56 

Felice,  ii.  253 


S.  Felice,  island  of,  i.  226 

Germano,  ii.  206 

Giacomo,  ii.  151 

Giorgio,  the  family  of, — at  Bieda, 
ii.  99 

Giovanni,  Lago  di,  i.  186 

Giulianello,  i.  226 

Maria  in  Forcassi,  ii.  95 

Maria  della  villa,  i.  277 

Marinella,  ii.  313 

Oreste,  ii.  44 

Pietro,  i.  280 

Procula,  ii.  279 

Severa,  ii.  312 

Vito,  i.  290 

Vittorino,  ii.  161 
Saturnia,  ii.  341 
Saturnian  Cities,  the  five,  i.  259 
Savelli,  castle  of  the,   i.  99  ;   their 

fortress  at  Palombara,  i.  178 
Scalza,   Ippolito, — his  works  at  Or- 

vieto,  ii.  125,  132 
Scaptia,  i.  161 
Schizzanello,  ii.  284 
Scholastica,  Convent  of,  at  Subiaco, 

i.  301 — 305 ;   grave  of,  at  Monte 

Cassino,  ii.  229 
Sciarra,   family  of,    their  castle   at 

Roviano,  i.  320 
Scrofano,  i.  141 
Scurgola,  i.  259  ;  ii.  184 
Segni,  i.  241 — 247 
Sermoneta,  ii.  245—247 
Setia,  ii.  256 
Sette  Basse,  i.  97 
Vene,  i.  142 
Sezza,  ii.  256 
Sforza-Cesarini,  family  of, — gardens 

and  villa  of,  at  Genzano,  i.  90;  pos- 
sessions of,  at  Segni,  i.  242 
Signorelli,  Luca,  his  works  at  Orvieto, 

ii.  127 — 137 
Silva  Laurentina,  the,  ii.  275 
Simbrivias  Aquoe,  i.  294 
Simone,  church  at  Vicovaro  built  by, 

i.  205  ;  his  death,  i.  207 
Solfatara,  the,  near  Ardea,  ii.  280 ; 

near  Tivoli,  i.  181 
Sonnino,  ii.  260,  261 
Sora,  ii.  192 
Soracte,  ii.  42 — 52 
Soraiio,  ii.  339 
Soriano,  ii.  54 
Sovana,  ii.  339 
Sjjaccato,  i.  190 
Spina  Cristi,  the,  i.  250 


362 


INDEX, 


Spoleto,  ii.  145 — 151  I 

Stagno,  the,  of  Ostia,  i.  41,  47 

Storta,  rivulet,  i.  133 

Strada  del  Diavolo,  i.  53 

Stretti  di  S.  Luigi,  ii.  178 

Strozzi,  the, — their  property  at  Lun- 

ghezza,  i.  164 
Subiaco,  i.  294 — 318 
Sugareto,  the,  ii.  280 
Sulmona,  ii.  171 — 177 
Superstitions  of  the  Campagna,  i.  30 
Supino,  i.  259 
Sutri,  ii.  59 — 64 


Tarquinii,  ii.  315 

Tartari,  Lago  dei,  i.  186 

Telamone,  ii.  349 

Temple  of — 

Castor  and  Pollux,  at  Cori,  i.  229 
the  CUtumnus,  ii.  153 
Equestrian    Fortune,    at    Porto 

d'  Anzio,  ii.  262 
Esculapius,  at  Porto  d'  Anzio, 

ii.  264 
Fortune,  at  Palestrina,  i.  271 
Hercules,  at  Tivoli,  i.  200,  202 
Juno,  at  Civita  Lavinia,  i.  95 
Juno,  at  Gabii,  i.  156 
Jupiter  Latiaris,   on  the  Alban 

Mount,  i.  86 
Leucothea,  at  Pyrgi,  ii.  313 
Minerva,  at  Cori,  i.  229 
the  Sibyl,  at  TivoU,  i.  194 
the  Sun,  on  the  Circean  Mount, 

ii.  254 
Tiburtus,  at  Tivoli,  i.  195 
Tosse,  at  Tivoli,  i.  200 
Vacuna,  at  Rocca  Giovane,   i. 
209 

Temple  Tombs  at  Norchia,  ii.  103 

Terni,  ii.  140 

Terracina,  ii.  250 — 253 

Testament,  the,  at  Ferentino,  i.  258 
•  Teverone,  the  river,  i.  185 

Theatre — 

of  Civita  Lavinia,  i.  95 

of  Gabii,  i.  157 

of  Tusculum,  i.  107 

Tiber,  the  river  described,  ii.  288 — 
290 

Tibur,  history  of,  i.  190 — 192 

Timone,  river,  ii.  333 

Todi,  ii.  143 

Toleria,  i.  268 


Tolfa.  ii.  311 
Tomb  of — 

Aruns,  i.  59 

the  Buonapartes  at  Frascati,  i. 

105 
C.  Maenius  Bassus  near  Tivoli, 

i.  207 
Cardinal  Altieri  at  Albano,  i.  78 
Cardinal  de  Braye  at  Orvieto,  ii. 

133 
Charles  Edward  at  Frascati,  i. 

99 
Consular,  at  Palazzuola,  i.  82 
P.  V.  Marianus,  i.  131 
Pompey,  at  Albano,  i.  56 
Torano,  ii.  162 
Torfea,  ii.  25 

Torlonia,  family  of, — at  Frascati,  i. 
103 ;  at  Bracciano,  i.  149  ;  at 
Gabii,  i.  151  ;  at  Musignano,  ii. 

334- 
Torre  (tower) — 

della  Bella  Marsilia,  ii.  349 

Cervaro,  i.  163 

Flavia,  ii.  312 

Lupara,  i.  179 

Nuova,  i.  97 

Paterno,  ii.  284 

Salara,  i.  169 

Sapienza,  i.  155,  162 

degh  Schiavi,  i.  154 

Tre  Teste,  i.  155,  162 
Toscanella,  ii.  335 — 338 
Trasacco,  ii.  190 
Trevignano,  1.  152 
Tribucci,  ii.  26 
Trisulti,  ii.  15 — 19 
Tuder,  ii.  144 

Turchina,  hill  of,  ii.  317,  326 
Tusculum,  i.  107 
Tutia,  river,  i.  185,  186 


Val  del  Paradiso,  i.  219 

Valentano,  ii.  338 

Vallericcia,  i.  60 

Valle  Santa,  i.  318 

Valmontone,  i.  268 

Veil,  i.  133— 141 

Velino,  the  river,  ii.  140 

Velletri,  i.  220 — 225 

Venafro,  ii.  179 

VeroH,  ii.  10 

Vespasian,   the  Emperor,— bom  at 


INDEX. 


363 


Amiternum,  ii.  161 ;  died  at  Aquae 
Cutiliae,  ii.  162 
Vetralla,  ii.  94 
Vetulonia,  ii.  348 
Via  Appia  Nova,  i.  52 
Appia  Vecchia,  i.  53 
Ardeatina,  ii.  280 
Aurelia,  ii.  313,  348 
Cassia,  i.  181 
CoUatina,  i.  164 
Constantina,  i.  201 
Ficulea,  i.  179 
Flaminia,  ii.  135 
Gabina,  i.  154 
Labicana,  i.  121 
Latina,  i.  52 
Laurentina,  ii.  285,  287 
Nomentana,  177,  181 
Praenestina,  i.  154,  160 
Salara,  i.  177,  181 
Severiana,  i.  48 
Sublacensis,  i.  318 
Valeria,  ii.  186,  318 
Vicarello,  i.  159 
Vicovaro,  i.  207 
Vignanello,  ii.  54 

Vignola,  his  work  at  Caprarola,  ii. 
69  ;  at  Bagnaja,  ii.  89  ;  at  Rieti, 
11.  159 
Villa  Adriana,  i.  188 — 190 

Aldobrandini,  at  Frascati,  i.  103 
Altieri,  at  Albano,  i.  76 
Altieri,  at  Oriolo,  i.  152 
of  Attilius  Regulus,  i.  97 
Barberini,  at  Albano,  i.  71 
Braschi,  at  Tivoli,  i.  204 
of  Cato  the  Younger,  i.  117 
of  Catullus,  at  Tivoli,  i.  205 
of  Cicero,  at  Frascati,  i.  106 


Villa  Doria,  at  Albano,  i.  79 
D'Este,  at  Tivoli,  i.  203 
Falconieri,  at  Frascati,  i.  105 
of  the  Gens  Cassia,  at  Tivoli,  i. 

206. 
Imperial,  of  the  Sette  Basse,  i. 

97 
Lante,  at  Bagnaja,  ii.  89 
of  Maecenas,  at  Tivoli,  i.  199 
Mondragone,  at  Frascati,  i.  115 
of  Nero,'  at  Porto  d'Anzio,  ii. 

264 
Pallavicini,  at  Frascati,  L  103 
of  Phaon,  i.  169 
Rufinella,  at  Frascati,  i.  105 
Savorelli,  at  Sutri,  ii.  63 
Sora,  at  Frascati,  i.  114 
Taverna,  at  Frascati,  i.  114 
Torlonia,  at  Frascati,  i.  103 
of  Vopiscus,  at  Tivoli,  i.  197 
Vitalian,  S.,  his  statue  at  Segni,  i. 

245 
Viterbo,  ii.  75 — 87 
Viterbo,  Lorenzo  di,  frescoes  by,  ii. 

81 
Vitorchiano,  ii.  105 
Volci,  ii.  329—333 


U. 


Ufente,  the  river,  ii.  249 
Ulmanus,  the,  i.  185 


Zagarola,  i.  161 

Zuccheri,  the, — their  works  at  Capra- 
rola, ii.  71 ;  at  Bagnaja,  ii.  90 


TlitTUE  AKD  CO.,  F&UiT£BS,  CITX  BOAS,  LOITSOX. 


Bg  tJje  same  ^utljor. 


MEMORIALS  OF  A  QUIET 
LIFE. 

With  Two  Steel  Portraits.     Twelfth  Edition.     2  Vols.     Cr.  8vo.,  21J. 


"The  name  of  Hare  is,  indeed,  one  deservedly  to  be  honoured,  and  in  these 
'  Memorials,'  which  are  about  as  true  and  satisfactory  a  biography  as  it  is  possible  to 
write,  the  author  places  his  readers  in  the  heart  of  the  family,  and  allov/s  them  to 
see  the  hidden  sources  of  life  and  love  by  which  it  was  nourished  and  sustained." — 
A  thettceuni. 

"  This  is  one  of  those  books  which  it  is  impossible  to  read  without  pleasure.  The 
reading  of  it  conveys  a  sense  of  repose  not  unlike  that  which  everybody  must  have 
felt  out  of  service  time  in  quiet  little  village  churches.  Its  editor  will  receive  the 
hearty  thanks  of  every  cultivated  reader  for  making  public  these  profoundly  interesting 
'  Memorials '  of  two  brothers,  whose  names  and  labours  their  respective  universities 
and  their  common  church  have  alike  equal  reason  to  cherish  with  affection  and  to 
remember  with  pride,  who  have  smoothed  the  path  of  faith  to  so  many  troubled 
wayfarers,  strengthening  the  weary  and  confirming  the  weak." — Standard. 

"This  is  in  substance  a  memorial  biography  of  the  two  brothers  Augustus  and 
Julius  Hare,  '  the  most  brotherly  of  brothers,'  as  Landor  called  them,  the  authors 
of  the  well-known  'Guesses  at  Truth,'  and  the  intimate  personal  friends  of  Dr. 
Arnold,  Baron  Bunsen,  Bishop  Heber,  Grote,  Landor,  Dean  Stanley,  and  a  host 
of  literary  celebrities,  living  or  deceased.  It  is  a  fascinating  and  vivid  picture  of 
family  life  in  its  sweetest  and  best  aspects,  everywhere  enriched  with  a  cabinet  of 
excellent  portraits,  with  illustrative  extracts  from  letters,  diaries,  and  sermons, 
abounding  in  anecdote,  in  shrewd  saws,  and  out-of-the-way  information." — Graphic. 

"  The  book  is  rich  in  insight  and  in  contrast  of  character.  It  is  varied  and  full  of 
episodes,  which  we  are  sure  few  could  fail  to  read  with  interest ;  and  as  exhibiting — 
mostly  by  means  of  their  own  words — the  sentiments  and  thoughts  of  a  very  influential 
circle  of  minds  during  a  quarter  of  a  century,  it  may  be  said  to  have  a  distinct  his- 
torical value." — Nonconfor7nist. 

"  We  are  far  from  using  the  language  ot  mere  conventional  eulogy  when  we  say 
that  this  is  a  book  which  will  cause  every  right-minded  reader  to  feel  not  only  the 
happier,  but  the  better  ....  Within  the  compass  of  these  two  handsome  volumes  is 
contained  the  record  and  the  monument  of  features  that  are  amongst  the  noblest, 
the  truest,  the  most  beautiful,  the  most  elevating,  and  the  most  essentially  English 
of  our  English  home  life.  The  dramatis  persoiue  are  among  the  purest  and  the  best 
of  our  national  types,  while  the  beauty  of  what  is  a  typical  character  and  a  typical 
life  is  intensified  by  the  distinction  attaching  to  the  names  of  those  who  are  intro- 
duced to  us  in  Mr  flare's  charming  book." — Co/iservative. 

"A  charming  book,  simply  and  gracefully  recording  the  events  of  a  simple  and 
gracious  life.  Its  connection  with  the  beginning  of  a  great  movement  in  the  English 
Church  will  make  it  to  the  thoughtful  reader  more  profoundly  suggestive  than  many 
biographies  crowded  and  bustling  with  incident.  It  is  almost  the  first  of  a  class  of 
books  such  as  the  Christian  world  just  now  greatly  needs,  as  showing  how  the  spiritual 
life  was  maintained  in  all  its  delicate  purity  and  beauty  amid  the  shaking  of  religious 
*  opinions  ; '  how  the  life  of  the  soul  deepened  as  the  thoughts  of  the  mind  broadened ; 
and  how  in  their  union,  the  two  formed  a  volume  of  larger  and  more  thoroughly 
vitalised  Christian  idea  than  the  English  people  had  witnessed  for  many  days."— 
Gias£-t>w  Herald. 


DALDY,  ISBISTER  &  CO.,  56,  LUDGATE  HILL. 


ftniform  foil^  "  Pcmorials  of  a  QuUt  Jtift.* 


THE  ALTON  SERMONS, 

BY   THE   LATE 

AUGUSTUS  WILLIAM  HARE,  A.M. 

RECTOR  or  ALTON   BARNES. 

New  Exiition  in  one  volume,  crown  8vo,  los.  6d. 


"  They  are,  in  truth,  as  appears  to  us,  compositions  of  very  rare  merit,  and  realize 
a  notion  we  have  always  entertained,  that  a  sermon  for  our  rural  congregations 
there  somewhere  was,  if  it  could  be  hit  off,  which  in  language  should  be  familiar 
without  being  plain,  and  in  matter  solid  without  being  abstruse." — Quarterly 
Review. 

"  Sermons  which  a  former  generation  highly  prized,  and  which  this  should 
welcome.  They  were  preached  to  simple  country  folk,  and  heard  by  them  with 
loving  attention  and  appreciation,  but  they  are  such  as  no  man  need  disdain  to 
listen  io."— spectator. 

"  Sermons  which  have  taken  their  place  with  English  classics,  which  were 
understood  and  Hked  by  rustics,  when  delivered  in  the  tiny  village  church,  and 
when  printed  were  read  and  admired  by  the  most  learned  and  fastidious." — 
Noncon/ortnist. 

"All  may  read  these  sermons  with  profit,  but  to  clergymen,  if  studied  with 
discretion,  they  may  prove  serviceable  in  no  common  degree,  in  regard  especially  to 
the  lucid  clearness  of  their  style,  their  striking  illustration,  their  tone  of  earnestness, 
and  -above  all  the  admirable  skill  with  which  abundant  intellectual  resources  are 
adapted  to  the  capacities  of  an  unlearned  audience." — Christian  Observer. 

"  These  sermons  present  us  with  the  working  of  a  pious  and  highly-gifted  mind  in 
its  endeavours  to  impress  the  truths  of  Christianity  upon  the  understanding  of  a  rural 
population.  There  are  few  placed  in  circiunstances  similar  to  those  of  the  accom- 
plished author  who  will  not  find  valuable  hints  suggested  in  them  for  parochial 
instruction." — British  Magazine 


DALDY,  ISBISTER  &  CO.,  56,  LUDGATE  HILL. 


oxhs  bg  C.  |,  ©'aitg^an,  §.g, 


MASTER   OF   THE  TEMPLE. 


Family  Prayers. 

Crown  8vo.     3i'.  6d. 

The    Presence    of    God    in    His 

Temple.     Small  8vo.     y.  6d. 

Sundays  in  the  Temple. 

Small  8vo.     3^-.  6d. 

Half-hours  in  the  Temple  Church. 

Small  Svo.     3J.  6d. 

Last  Words  in  the  Parish  Church 

of  Doncaster.     Crown  Svo.    33-.  6d. 

Earnest  Words  for  Earnest  Men. 

Small  Svo.     ^s.  6d. 

Voices  of  the  Prophets  on  Faith, 

Prayer,  and  Human  Life.     Small  Svo.     2s.  6d. 

Characteristics  of  Christ's  Teach- 
ing.   Small  Svo.     2s.  6d. 

Christ  the  Light  of  the  World. 

Small  Svo.     2s.  6d. 

Plain  Words  on  Christian  Living. 

Small  Svo.     2s.  6d. 


DALDY,  ISBISTER  &  CO.,  56,  LUDGATE  HILL. 


THE   LATE   DEAN   OF   CANTERBURY. 


The  Book  of  Genesis  and  Part  of 

the  Book  of  Exodus.  A  Revised  Version  with 
Marginal  References,  and  an  Explanatory  Com- 
mentary.    Demy  8vo.     12s. 

The  New  Testament. 

Authorised  Version  revised.     6s.,  3^.  6d.,  is.  dd. 

Essays  and  Addresses. 

Chiefly  on  Church  Subjects.     Demy  8vo.     is.  6d. 

The  Year  of  Prayer ; 

Being  Family  Prayers  for  the  Christian  Year.  Crown 
8vo.  $s.  6d.;  i2mo.  is.  6d. 

The  Week  of  Prayer. 

An  Abridgment  of  "  The  Year  of  Prayer,"  intended  for 
use  in  Schools.     Neat  cloth,     gd. 

The  Year  of  Praise ; 

Being  Hymns  with  Tunes,  for  the  Sundays  and 
Holidays  of  the  Year.     3^-.  6d.,  is.  6d.,  is.,  6d. 

How  to  Study  the  New  Testament. 

In  Three  Parts.     Small  8vo.     ^s.  6d.  each. 

Eastertide  Sermons. 

Preached  before  the  University  of  Cambridge.  Small 
8vo.     3J".  6d. 

Meditations : 

Advent,  Creation,  Providence.     Small  Svo.     y.  6d. 


DALDY,  ISBISTER  &  CO.,  56,  LUDGATE  HILU 


PROFESSOR   OF     DIVINITY,     KING'S     COLLEGE,    LONDON. 


The  Tragedies  of  JEschylos. 

A  New  Translation,  with  a  Biographical  Essay,  and  an 
Appendix  of  Rhymed  Choruses.  Crown  8vo.    js.  6d. 

The  Tragedies  of  Sophocles. 

A  New  Translation,  with  a  Biographical  Essay,  and  an 
Appendix  of  Rhymed  Choruses.  Crown  8vo.   Ts.  6d, 

Lazarus,  and  other  Poems. 

Crown  8vo.     5^". 

Master    and    Scholar,    and   other 

Poems.     Crown  8vo.     Si". 

Biblical  Studies. 

Post  8vo.     5>f. 

Theology  and  Life. 

Small  8vo.     6s. 

Christ  and  Christendom : 

Being  the  Boyle  Lectures  for  1866.     Demy  8vo.     12s, 

Sunday. 

8vo,  sewed.     6d. 


DALDY,  ISBISTER  &  CO.,  56,  LUDGATE  HILL. 


J/ -^5-^ 


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